German team to develop airborne wind energy system

A German partnership is working to develop a fully automated airborne wind energy system, utility Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (ETR:EBK), or EnBW, which is participating in the initiative, said on Thursday.

As part of the research project, called SkyPower100, the partners aim to develop and test a 100-kW flying system by 2020. The system should work autonomously and start, land and stow the kite by itself. It will be tested for several months, during which time the consortium wants to gain clues of how to scale the technology into the megawatt class on shore. Future offshore use is also considered.

According to the announcement, high-altitude wind technology could become a pioneering supplement to conventional wind energy.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and coordinated by SkySails Power GmbH, which is responsible for the development, production, installation and testing of the pilot device. Other partners include EWE Offshore Service & Solution GmbH and the Institute of Propulsion Systems and Power Electronics of the Leibniz University Hannover.

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