Kite Power Systems - By Atharva Lokhande

They have captured the imagination of children during the month of Sankranti. They have helped our ancestors to communicate over a long distance. They have great importance in most of Asian cultures. But beyond the fun and religious symbol, this ancient mechanism is reinvented to harness the wind power more effectively.

Kite power is one of the brilliant ideas to harness wind energy. We know the wind speed is higher in the upper atmosphere. That's why the windmills are placed up above the ground and as taller as possible. Making windmill taller has its challenges. Firstly a tall Windmill needs a strong foundation to support against the bending due to high wind force. Secondly, the cost of material used, the price for the foundation, and the transportation increase, and it only becomes, which can make the payer unable to afford the wind power. Thirdly windmill has a Maximum capacity limit called Betz limit, which is around 59.3% of total wind energy that you can harness through wind turbines. The wind turbine has to stop function if the wind speed exceed to a certain number.

To deal with these problems, some of the genius entrepreneurs have a brilliant solution. Kite Power Systems (KPS) has designed a system that has two kites flown to an altitude of up to 450m. A tether is attached to a winch that generates electricity as it spools out; by achieving flight speeds of up to 160Kmph, the kite's tether tension causes the line to rapidly spool out from a drum, which turns a generator to produce electricity. At a given time one kite is unwinding the spool, and part of its energy is used to wind the spool of another kite. The kite surfaces are attached with the control surfaces which regulate lift n each kite. A decent algorithm is used to optimize the power output in the system.

KPS has developed the system which is capable of generating 500KW of power. To put it into perspective, an average Indian home consumes 90 kWh of electricity, which makes around 3 kWh per day. And 3/24 KW of power per hour. So One unit of KPS power system can run 4000 Indian homes. 

Unlike Wind turbines, these kites can be flown during fast hurricane wind. The only part which can break is the relatively cheap tether. The Imperial College London has conducted wind tunnel tests of energy kites, said to have helped the concept by Kite Power Systems (KPS) on its way to commercialization.

Thanks, Atharva for writing this blog.

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Check out working of KPS by the shell: https://youtu.be/vMTchVXedkk