High Altitude Wind Energy Research Articles

Experimental Study on a Model of Bulk Wind Energy Collecting System

In this paper, we propose a vertical axis wind energy collecting system and bulk wind energy collecting system. This system may be integrated with the urban high buildings, and produce the electricity by the means of collecting high-altitude wind energy. We design a model and do series of experiments on the model and get some results. Results show that power output reaches a maximum when the angle is 45°, turbine starts to work at the wind speed of 1.8m/s. We find that it has a strong ability to adapt to random direction and low speed wind.

Using of High Altitude Wind Energy

Ground based, wind energy extraction systems have reached their maximum capability. The limitations of current de-signs are: wind instability, high cost of installations, and small power output of a single unit. The wind energy industry needs of revolutionary ideas to increase the capabilities of wind installations. This article suggests a revolutionary innovation which produces a dramatic increase in power per unit and is independent of prevailing weather and at a lower cost per unit of energy extracted. The main innovation consists of large free-flying air rotors positioned at high altitude for power and air stream stability, and an energy cable transmission system between the air rotor and a ground based electric generator. The air rotor system flies at high altitude up to 14 km. A stability and control is provided and systems enable the changing of altitude. This article includes six examples having a high unit power output (up to 100 MW). The proposed examples provide the following main advantages: 1) Large power production capacity per unit—up to 5,000 - 10,000 times more than conventional ground-based rotor designs; 2) The rotor operates at high altitude of 1 - 14 km, where the wind flow is strong and steady; 3) Installation cost per unit energy is low; 4) The installation is environmentally friendly (no propeller noise).

High Altitude Wind Energy Generation Using Controlled Power Kites

This paper presents simulation and experimental results regarding a new class of wind energy generators, denoted as KiteGen, which employ power kites to capture high altitude wind power. A realistic kite model, which includes the kite aerodynamic characteristics and the effects of line weight and drag forces, is used to describe the system dynamics. Nonlinear model predictive control techniques, together with an efficient implementation based on set membership function approximation theory, are employed to maximize the energy obtained by KiteGen, while satisfying input and state constraints. Two different kinds of KiteGen are investigated through numerical simulations, the <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">yo-yo configuration</i> and the <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">carousel configuration</i> , respectively. For each configuration, a generator with the same kite and nominal wind characteristics is considered. A novel control strategy for the carousel configuration, with respect to previous works, is also introduced. The simulation results show that the power generation potentials of the yo-yo and carousel configurations are very similar. Thus, the choice between these two configurations for further development of a medium-to-large scale generator will be made on the basis of technical implementation problems and of other indexes like construction costs and generated power density with respect to land occupation. Experimental data, collected using the small-scale KiteGen prototype built at Politecnico di Torino, are compared to simulation results. The good matching between simulation and real measured data increases the confidence with the presented simulation results, which show that energy generation with controlled power kites can represent a quantum leap in wind power technology, promising to obtain renewable energy from a source largely available almost everywhere, with production costs lower than those of fossil sources.