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Kite Power - Another Way to Harness the Power of the Wind

Wind turbines are great, and useful in so many ways, yet they are also very limited in a number of other ways. For one, wind speeds increase with altitude, and even the biggest struggle to get past the 200m barrier, as it would be impractical and not feasible, from an economic standpoint, to build them that high.
Kite Power! 1 photo
Photo: fraunhofer.de
However, now, a Berlin-based company,NTS GmbH and the Fraunhofer Institute of Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), have set out to harness the power of the wind, in a different way, by using simple kites. The idea is that the kite pulls vehicles which move along rails, and convert the kinetic energy produced into electricity.

A system like this would be preferable over a conventional turbine, as the kite can be flown much higher, and thus reach much higher wind speeds, without the need for expensive constructions.

Such kites could be flown at between 300 to 500 meters in the air (or more, eventually) - by doubling the wind speed, physics tells us that eight times more energy is produced, according to IPA engineer, Joachim Montnacher, who also explains that eight kites with a combined surface area of 300 square meters could effectively do the work of 20 one megawatt turbines - impressive numbers.

The company is currently looking for investors, and reportedly already has a few onboard, and are now running computer simulations to verify their claims.

Story via gizmag.com
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