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Another use for UAVs: generating power

Posted by Chris Anderson on May 16, 2010 at 9:30pm

There's a good profile of Saul Griffith in last week's New Yorker. One of the companies he started, Makani Power, wants to use tethered UAVs (shown above) to generate power. Here's the relevant excerpt from the article. (Sorry about the scan, the New Yorker doesn't give out full text of most of its articles): Click for full size.

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Comments

Ron Jacobs May 17, 2010 at 3:24pm

Impressive.
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson May 17, 2010 at 2:50pm

Eric: check out "dynamic soaring", where RC gliders hit speeds of 400+ MPH just flying circles in constant winds. Now imagine a tether being pulled in and out with each circle.
Eric May 17, 2010 at 2:39pm

hmmm... I might be missing something, but where does the extra energy come from that allows this kite to keep spinning around and generate power?
Jack Crossfire May 17, 2010 at 2:11pm

It worked for Benjamin Franklin back in the old days, but Ben's UAV wasn't GREEN TECH.
Mike May 17, 2010 at 1:41pm

If governments would forget about the nasty forms of nuclear power and at least consider Thorium based nuclear solutions then nuclear power would be safe and plentiful. Unfortunately it doesn't produce waste that can be made into nuclear weapons. Certainly it is a more likely successful technology than kites....
Chris Paulson May 17, 2010 at 11:22am

Joby Energy in Santa Cruz, CA is working on this as well. The CEO gave a talk on the subject a months ago at PARC. Apparently the FAA agreed to classify these wind farms as obstructions, as long as they stay below 2000 feet. The talk also contains some very nice UAVish VTOL flying wings and a glimpse of a future flying car.
Lew Payne May 17, 2010 at 10:53am

"If you're talking about a space elevator, they're actually a lot closer to being feasible than you might think" - Xander

We have a space elevator here at work. It just goes to the third floor right now, but I'm hopeful that technology will allow it to reach the moon some day. We're a lot closer than anyone thinks as far as being able to do this. Oh, and by the way, I also believe in Santa Claus.
Daniel Gru May 17, 2010 at 10:48am

Great technology, love it.. could get us of our oil dependancy or nuclear energy.
Only thing i'd be worried about is a plane hitting the kite-site at 1500ft in the middle of the night...

Daniel
bGatti May 17, 2010 at 10:43am

Every kite surfer is using this technology to power herself along in all directions including upwind (tacking).
Google.org has funded this company.
There is power there, and they would hardly be the first to imagine using it. (kites have powered a variety of things in history - particularly in China where kites were invented.) Some theories suggest the Pyramids were erected using kites.
Good luck to them.
Moderator

Sgt Ric May 17, 2010 at 10:35am

There was a similiar article in MAKE magazine.

It would fly just like a stunt kite, either in large circles or figure eights.

I have flown stunt kites and run R/C sailboats... I know taht the power and speed you can get flying "close" to the wind is incredible.

http://magazine.It/