Kites & kiting

[Turtle]

YouTube - Kites

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by LaurieAG

Hi Turtle,

I've been giving things a bit of deep thought, especially about simplicity and autonomy, and I think I may have an idea that puts everything together.

The means of providing the lift doesn't have to be that exotic, anything that generates lift will do (even a flying slab of foam) and the simpler generator the better.

So by combining the two, lift and power generation, into one, with the 'kite' something more like Leonardo's continuous (tapered) screw helicopter spinning on an axis (the two combined to form the generator, i.e. the screw spins on the axis, upside down?).

I'll draw some rough plans, make a working model and see how it goes.

check this!! well, i don't know what all the password malarky is about, but i saw a tv news story on this thing. they claimed they were in negotiation for funding from BPA, but i can find no web source on this except the link below.

so the claim was this generator machine would be tethered like a kite & flown in the jet stream where the energy density is high. it wasn't clear to me if they put power in to keep it aloft in no wind or not??? the guy did mention it would gyro-coptor down though. anyway, given the unpredictability/unreliability of a stationary jet stream, i just don't see it. not to mention i think it's doomed to structural failure. no matter; enjoy.

https://baseloadenergy.com/

[LaurieAG]

Hi Turtle,

Originally Posted by Turtle

check this!! well, i don't know what all the password malarky is about, but i saw a tv news story on this thing. they claimed they were in negotiation for funding from BPA, but i can find no web source on this except the link below.

so the claim was this generator machine would be tethered like a kite & flown in the jet stream where the energy density is high. it wasn't clear to me if they put power in to keep it aloft in no wind or not??? the guy did mention it would gyro-coptor down though. anyway, given the unpredictability/unreliability of a stationary jet stream, i just don't see it. not to mention i think it's doomed to structural failure. no matter; enjoy.

https://baseloadenergy.com/

I agree Turtle, a box kite with a wind generator would be a more structurally sound, safer and so much more economic base considering that their example had 4 tethers with presumably 4 high speed two way winch systems while the basic box kite only requires 1 tether and 1 winching system.

If they didn't have any sort of system to bring it down safely it either (a) won't be allowed to fly or (b) must be cheap enough to be replaced each time the wind drops. That's why I recon that a small trailer or rear of a utility vehicle could be fitted out with a battery pack and a self launch/self land high speed integrated power cable winch that could probably supply power for a couple of households from the top of a nearby hill.

So Turtle do you think you could put a wind turbine on a box kite that could be made from cheap solid materials (that crumble around the generator/rotors when they crash) that can be replaced easily when it crashes?

The idea would be to retreive itself before conditions cause it to fall and launch itself when conditions are favourable, thereby avoiding unnecessary crashes. In cases where the conditions are entirely unfavourable and a dead stall situation is predicted power transmission must switch off, the kite generator and tether must be allowed to drop to the ground limp.

I've done enough kite flying to know how really dangerous those tiny filaments of fast moving string can be when they come into contact with relatively stationary things made of flesh or blood.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by LaurieAG

Hi Turtle,

hi laurie.

Originally Posted by lory

So Turtle do you think you could put a wind turbine on a box kite that could be made from cheap solid materials (that crumble around the generator/rotors when they crash) that can be replaced easily when it crashes?

The idea would be to retreive itself before conditions cause it to fall and launch itself when conditions are favourable, thereby avoiding unnecessary crashes. In cases where the conditions are entirely unfavourable and a dead stall situation is predicted power transmission must switch off, the kite generator and tether must be allowed to drop to the ground limp.

I've done enough kite flying to know how really dangerous those tiny filaments of fast moving string can be when they come into contact with relatively stationary things made of flesh or blood.

given what it takes to hands-on lauch and retrieve even my 6 foot box kite, i think having generators on kites is doomed to failure. that the company i listed is hiding their info unless you answer a bunch of questions is i think evidence that their project is half-baked and also doomed to failure. the guy from Baseload Energy that i saw interviewed, as i said earlier, claimed to have some funding or other support from a utility. i suspect he stretched the truth like a kite line, but if some utility really is funding him, then that utility board needs some revising.

given the 100+ years that we've had kites & generators extant at the same time, if the concept of joining them was viable then we'd have kite generators in service. we don't; it's not.

[LaurieAG]

Hi Turtle,

Originally Posted by Turtle

given the 100+ years that we've had kites & generators extant at the same time, if the concept of joining them was viable then we'd have kite generators in service. we don't; it's not.

We have had things like windmills for many hundreds, even thousands, of years.

A kite generator is not much different.

It could be locked in to operate sitting stationary on its battery pack or unlocked for use in the air. The attached image is something similar to what I think could be a viable start point for a 'box' kite style design. While it isn't quite a box kite, more like a flying wing, it could be manufactured from very lightweight materials and operate successfully in low to high wind conditions with a maximum height of around 100m.

The way I look at it is that the wind generator in the kite converts the faster wind speed into electricity quicker. The kite is only used to position the wind generator at the height and direction for optimum electricity production, i.e. also with the strongest pull.