Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? No, it's a Wind Turbine

­There are certain things you come across and think, why didn’t anyone think of that before? Wind turbine manufacturers have long had problems finding land suitable to build on and then going through all of the red tape necessary to get the permissions needed to build on that land. Another factor to consider is that the wind is stronger and more reliable at higher altitudes. Why not fly a giant wind turbine like a kite, so it doesn’t take up valuable land, and gets access to better quality wind at the same time? That way, it could be installed where and when it was needed. It could provide energy in remote places, or after natural disasters, it could be used above existing land and sea wind power installations to provide ‘3D energy generation’, or it could be used near urban locations, where installing wind power is not possible.

Someone at Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology has had exactly that thought and went on to create a prototype which just had its first trial. The S2000 Stratosphere Airborne Wind Energy System (SAWES) is a full-scale design that uses 12 turbines to create a potential energy generation capacity of 3MW. The device has just completed its successful test at Yibin, Sichuan. It was lifted to a height of 2,000 meters using a helium-filled airship with an integrated wind power unit into the upper layers of the atmosphere. The ship is hollow, with the 12 wind turbines arranged on the inside. The platform measures 60 metres long, 40 metres wide, and 40 metres high. It uses a ducted design that concentrates the airflow to the turbines, which improves that amount of energy generated.

During the test, the platform took around 30 minutes reach its target altitude, then it performed a stable hover while generating 385 kW/h of electricity, which was fed directly into the local grid through a tethered cable, which is also used to control the position of the platform and keep it stable. Energy increases with the cube of wind speed, meaning that it is possible to generate several times more power in the stronger winds found at higher altitudes, or get the similar amounts of power from much smaller turbines.  

Due to the success of the trial, Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology has started to produce the S2000 in small numbers, while building a facility to manufacture high-performance envelope materials to help kick off larger scale production. The new facility is expected to reach an annual output of 800,000 linear meters of material by 2028.

A floating wind generation platform seems a great idea, although the concept is still at an early stage of development. There has already been real interest shown by potential buyers of the technology, particularly in more remote and mountainous areas. Expanding the electricity available from wind power without needing additional land can only be a good thing.