"KitePower: A product developers' approach to Airborne Wind Energy"
Reinhart Paelinck (
www.rein-art.eu)
Abstract
(Airborne) Wind Energy tends to be mainly driven by technological
innovations and engineering.
One of the qualities of a product developer is the ability to
implement all relevant technological, economical as well as
customer-driven specifications into the (early stages of the) design
process. This integral approach to solving the problem generally leads
to a shorter development process and a higher succes-rate of the final
product. This methodology has been applied in the master thesis
project KitePower.
In the KitePower design process a large array of quickdesigns and
features are proposed and analysed. A trade-off between these
solutions is made, based on the initially defined specifications. Also
the influence of the proposed solution on other parts of the design is
kept in mind in this decision-making process. This approach resulted
in the final conceptual design of KitePower.
This offshore KitePower-plant combines a number of technological
innovations. An unconventional annular wing shape distributes the
loads on the kite in such a way that a lot of weight can be saved,
without compromising performance. All control mechanisms are grouped
inside a shell, but integrated within the tensairity structure of the
kite.
Electricity is generated by a double C-core permanent magnet
generator, to which the cable to the kite is attached. A buoy carries
this generator, and also provides a landing area for the kite.
The conceptual design attempts to keep the amount of material as well
as production techniques to an absolute minimum, to limit the
production costs. The moored structure isn't bound to a fixed water
depth, maximizing possible construction sites.
In this presentation I will discuss the development process of
KitePower, illustrated by the final design.
