Generating electricity from kites...
Discussion
I've been wondering if this is possible, and thought I'd throw it out to the PH engineering geniuses for discussion. Clearly I'm not the first person to think of it, and it may even be implemented somewhere - but let me explain my thoughts on it and maybe I'll learn something from the feedback. It's more just a collection of random thoughts and notions.
Let's assume a well designed kite can stay aloft indefinitely at any reasonable altitude. AFAIK that's just an engineering problem, and should be possible. It can sit up there, pulling its string taught, and all is well and good. If you've seen those wind-karters or the folk who get pulled up mountains on snowboard by kites, you'll know that energy can be extracted in this way.
However - could we generate electricity with a tethered kite? If it has a fixed base, say attached to a spindle, then by letting the kite out, electricity can be generated. But clearly that's not sustainable. We can't just keep letting the kite out further. Without letting the kite out further, it will just exert a constant pull on its tether, and I don't see how any electricity could be generated from that.
Perhaps some sort of magnet assembly attached to the base of the kites tether, which is in a coiled tube, would generate electricity from the random movement of the kite - but I can't see that being very efficient.
Perhaps a system that winds the tether in if/when it slackens due to lack of wind.. and then engages some sort of clutch when the wind picks up, and connects it to a dynamo?
I'm off to google it now, but I'd love to hear some thoughts on it!
Jut found a TED talk on the subject http://www.ted.com/talks/saul_griffith_on_kites_as...
Going to watch it now
Going to watch it now
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