One can say: "If you cannot go to heaven; bring heaven to you."! This axiom has now come true in the case of drawing electric power from wind. Currently, we install wind turbines and when wind comes from the right direction and enough wind comes at the right speed, we generate electricity from wind turbines. Now we go up to reach the wind with the help of a newly designed kite that floats in the air and brings electric power.
A new kite-driven power station is being built in Scotland, which will be the first large-scale commercial power plant of its kind. Kite-driven power plant is a relatively new idea. It involves using multiple kites to harness wind power to drive wind turbines on the ground. The kite is attached to a ground-based wind turbine, with a tether, and when the wind forces the kite to rise, the tether spins the turbine to generate electricity. By using a system with two kites, where one rises as the other falls, power can be generated continuously.
A company called "Kite Power Systems" that is building this power plant, says that its system is cheap and cost-effective, and that it will need no public subsidy, unlike most renewable energy power plants in the UK. The location of the power plant is a big advantage as the winds in that part of Scotland blows at the same flow and strength all the year round several hundred feet above ground level. Usually renewable power plants have long downside, which is not so in this case.
Once this power plant is built, it will be the first large-scale kite-driven power plant in the UK and only the second in the world which is a research project in Italy. The company expects that each kite generator will generate around two to three megawatts of electricity each. They are optimistic that the plant will be able to generate around seven hundred megawatts of electricity by the year 2025.
(Source: Popular Mechanics: October 2016)
Engr.S.A.Mansoor
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