Airborne Wind Turbine

Basics

• A Category of Wind Turbine that has its components either not connected to the ground, or only tethered
• Thus it is lower cost due to no need for a large Mast , and can reach (much) higher altitudes and thus stronger more stable wind
• Also they can be "pulled down" via the tether and thus are highly mobile and can be made very safe in storms

Categories

Heavier than Air

• These are the most common, typically a Ram Air Wing, Semi-Rigid Kite, or a Tethered Glider
• They typically use a tether and the basestation does the power generation

Lighter than Air

• These aren't common and seem to be less viable of a design, but use a Lighter than Air Aircraft to carry a more conventional wind turbine design
• Some use the lifting device as a turbine (essentially a blimp spinnin on an axis), which adds some benefits
• Unless Hydrogen or Hot Air or some alternate Lifting Gas is used, you are going to need Helium which is a non-renewable resource almost in a more extreme sense than Fossil Fuels so is the exact opposite of an Appropriate Material
• Thus these are not really relevant in an OSE context at least

Internal Links

• Makani

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Airborne Wind Turbines
• A 2017 Article by "Green Tech Media" Titled "A Brief Guide to the Airborne Wind Turbine Market"
• A Video by the YouTube Channel "Real Engineering" Titled "The Future of Wind Power? - Kite Power Systems"