What matters is scalability and how much material and cost you need to produce per energy unit. Kites (either parasails or fixed wing) are much simpler, can be scaled up too, and you only need a simple cable that pulls the generator’s winch. Overall kites seem much more efficient to scale up.
Comment on 'Windmill': China tests world’s first megawatt-level airship to capture high winds
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 5 weeks agoPromising concept too, but this is 250-500x the scale of that.
AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
zergtoshi@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
How so, when skysails talks about “Venyo harnesses the power of high-altitude winds with speeds of 13 m/s and a continuous output of up to 200 kW.” while the S1500 is featured with “Inside this duct are 12 turbine-generator sets, each rated at 100 kW.”?
It’s more like factor 5-6.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 5 weeks ago
Their v2 product produces about 5kw at much lower altitude (weaker 9m/s winds). 13m/s is a big ask. They don’t go as high as 1000m. I was comparing to their v2 product instead of the 200w theoretical max of their v1 product. But the blimp may not produce 1.2mw all the time either.
zergtoshi@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Yah, we need to have them running to get real numbers.
I find both approaches promising.
Ways to make electric energy available without burning fossil fuel are good.