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Kite Power: The Latest In Green Technology (thebulletin.org)
New submitter Dan Drollette writes: The solution to producing energy without contributing to global warming may be to go fly a kite. Literally. Researchers in Switzerland and Italy — high-altitude places where the winds are strong, steady and predictable — have been working on ways to generate electricity from kites that fly hundreds or thousands of meters high. The scientists already have a prototype cranking out 27 megawatts; they expect to have a 100-megawatt plant big enough to power 86,000 households. And they say that they can produce electricity for less that 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is better than fossil fuel. Plus, the kites look really cool (as does the "Darrieus rotor vertical axis wind turbine" at the base of the St Bernard Pass, on the Swiss side, which I've seen in operation in person).
27Mw is no small prototype, but there seems to be nothing about it anywhere.
The largest power consumers of the future are going to be developing countries like China and India . Not much is being done there.
Sounds like an idea from a techie green person who has not actually worked in the power industry.
You're going to use linear motion, convert it to rotational motion to spin a rotor in a generator and make electricity.
Stupid and wasteful. Not to mention the hazard of losing your investment when one of these crashes.
If you want to be smart figure out how to improve the steam cycle or cumbustion cycle most LARGE power plants operate off of. Figure out ways to improve your efficiency, cheaply. Refurbish old coal power plants into a combined cycle plant with an HRSG.
You're not going to be generating electricity en masse (700+ MW plants) free of the steam or combustion any time soon. Unless you're okay with inefficiency.
1) I've stood directly underneath a 1MW turbine in the middle of a large wind farm on a windy day. There wasn't much noise at all, just a light whoosh... whoosh... whoosh.... I don't know where this concept that wind turbines are "terribly noisy" comes from, but it doesn't at all match my experience.
2) You're concerned with noise about something that's hundreds of meters up? What about kite-based systems that operate at thousands of meters up, would you be worried about noise from them too?
He's the sort of person who would sell the Red Cross to Dracula.
I guess you just like having someone to point to and say "well, they're worse than me, so I can continue being wasteful", as you clearly haven't spent any time looking for supporting evidence.