CO2 neutrality

Carbon emissions caused by the conference on 24th and 25th of May including all travels have been offset via ecogood.

The contribution made by Autodesk ensures a comprehensible offsetting of carbon emissions. The offsetting amount warrants the carbon offsetting by retiring emission reduction certificates generated by a project in Cevizli, Turkey. The project uses wind as a renewable energy source and thereby replaces emissions caused by the use of conventional energy sources such as coal or gas. As a positive but important side effect, the project has generated jobs, has contributed to the improvement of the regional infrastructure and last but not least promotes the transfer of knowledge and technology.

The internationally acknowledged Gold Standard Certification of the project guarantees a reliable and independent verification of the emission reductions. The retirement of the adequate amount of emission reduction certificates on behalf of ecogood is monitored and verified by TÜV Nord.

Altaeros Energies

Altaeros Energies is developing a patent-pending airborne wind turbine that uses a buoyant shroud to lift a conventional lightweight wind turbine a few hundred meters in the air. Our technology is adapted from tethered balloons commonly used to lift multi-ton radar systems into the air for long periods for surveillance and weather monitoring. By enabling a high power wind turbine to be deployed from a standard shipping container in one day, we are targeting a $15 billion market in remote, military, and offshore power applications by lowering the cost of energy 65% compared to leading wind turbines or diesel generators today. Altaeros was founded by MIT and Harvard alumni and is based on Boston, MA. Altaeros was a finalist in the 2010 MIT Clean Energy Prize Renewables Track and recently showcased its technology at the US DOE ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

Ampyx Power

Ampyx Power is a young company located in The Hague, the Netherlands. The company was founded end of 2008 by Richard Ruiterkamp and Bas Lansdorp, Airborne Wind Energy experts from TU Delft. During 2009, Ampyx Power has developed the PowerPlane prototype with a subsidy from SenterNovem and an investment from two angel investors.
Ampyx Power analysis shows that Airborne Wind Energy systems have the potential to generate electricity at a quarter of the cost of conventional wind turbines and comparable to fossil fuel based technologies. The challenges to overcome in order to realize commercial systems are achievable since these have previously been solved in other areas of technology. The drivers for these lower costs are the simplicity of the system which leads to lower capital costs and the higher capacity factor due to the more consistent an higher velocity winds at greater altitudes. Apart from the economic returns, the realization of the PowerPlane system on a commercial scale will contribute to achieving renewable energy and CO2 emission targets.

Assystem

The Assystem GmbH is your competent partner for all engineering questions.
We are a member of the French Assystem Group, one of the leading European engineering services companies with more than 8,500 employees in 14 countries of the world. We are well-known experts in the areas of development and manufacture for the industries Aerospace, Turbo Machines, Automotive und Energy & Plant Engineering.

In Germany, the Assystem Group is represented by two other affiliates. The companies Berner & Mattner and SILVER ATENA are specializes in the specification, development and testing of complex electronic systems.

Together we offer our customers competent support along the whole product lifecycle, support that is backed by the knowledge of more than 1,100 specialists.

Autodesk

A world leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, Autodesk enables customer innovation by delivering the broadest product portfolio for the digital design, visualization, and simulation of real-world project performance. The Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program supports early-stage clean technology companies with design and engineering software they can use to accelerate their development of solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

For more information visit http://www.autodesk.co.uk/cleantech.

Simon Bolten

Airborne Wind Energy at the Technical University Munich.
Michael Schölkopf, Simon Bolten & Patrick J. Lauffs

The team of Windward Energy, located at TU Munich, is working on high altitude wind energy since 2009. It has developed and tested small-scale prototypes of kite steering units, as well as a ground station for kite-pumping. The team consists of two engineering students (Aerospace & Product Development) and one student of economics (Technology and Management oriented). All three are graduates from the scholarship ‘Manage&More’ from the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at TU Munich.

The thesis of Michael Schoelkopf, that will be presented, deals with the conception of a ground station for a 1 MW Kite wind power plant. A comparison of possible mechanical components, like generators, energy storage and gearing, for fulfilling the needed functions are in the focus. Furthermore an estimation is given about development, investment and operation costs to derive the total costs for electricity and make a prediction about the cost-effectiveness of such a system.
The steering unit that will be presented by Patrick J. Lauffs offers the ability to control the steering lines, as well as to change the angle of attack. It is designed to be manually controlled from the ground station, but also offers the possibility to run closed loop control algorithms based on the states of flight. The current development focuses on optimizing weight and maneuverability in addition to the implementation of automatic control.

Jorn Baayen

Geometric trajectory tracking control.

We present a new, geometric solution to the kite trajectory tracking control problem. Our approach offers three advantages: a stability proof, ease of implementation, and minimal modelling requirements. The latter is especially important for control of flexible kites, which are hard to model accurately in a point-mass or rigid-body framework.

Kites commonly have a single control input available for steering. In the presentation we show how the differential-geometric notion of turning angle can be used as a one-dimensional representation of the kite trajectory, and how this leads to a single-input single-output tracking problem. In order to facilitate model inversion we linearize the turning angle dynamics in the steering control input and apply energy methods to derive a stabilizing feedback law. We show how the zero-term of the linearization can be measured directly using on-board sensors, and how in this way the control law comes to depend on the control derivatives of the aerodynamic kite model only.

Alexander Bormann

EnerKite – Wind Energy Redefined.
Alexander Bormann, Christian Gebhard, Bernhard Kämpf, Peter Knauer and Stefan Skutnik

Most of today’s wind turbines supply their rated output less than a quarter of time. EnerKites will deliver rated power onshore and offshore at least fifty percent of the time.

The presentation will introduce the EnerKite company, its concepts and products towards the next generation of wind power plants. Founded on 20 years of experience and excellence in the field of wind energy, flight mechanics and control as well as kite technology and automation a mobile 30 kW prototype plant is under development. Particular test rigs are developed in order to derive feasible and sustainable solutions.

With 1 Mio. load cycles and more the lines of YoYo- and ground actuated systems suffer from significant fatigue. The EnerKite rope test rig allows to perform highly dynamic and frequent bending and tension tests. The results are determining the rope, drum and sheave design. By means of windtunnel tests the properties of ropes and airfoils are investigated and optimized.

Using rapid prototyping and newest design methods the EnerKite Experimental Power Plant will be accomplished and operated in the very near future. This allows to demonstrate and further develop the prototype of the EnerKite Control Unit and the first generation of EnerKites – reinforced and optimized for stronger loads, energy production and automated flights.

Stephan Brabeck

“SkySails – Ship propulsion by automated towing kites”

Stephan Brabeck, as technical director of SkySails, has had leadership oversight of research and development, manufacturing and service since January 2005. He was born in Cologne in 1962 and earned an engineering degree from Aachen University where he majored in aerospace engineering.

1981-1989 : Aachen University, awarded a degree (Dipl.-Ing) in aerospace engineering

1991-1992 : Developmental engineer, Schottel GmbH & Co. KG, Spay

1992-2001 : Director of Research & Development, Schottel GmbH & Co. KG, Spay

2001-2002 : Acting managing director, Schottel Propulsion Technology, Wismar

2002-2004 : Technical director and proxy, Schottel GmbH & Co. KG, Spay

Stephan Brabeck has been a managing director and worked as technical director for SkySails since 1 January 2005. An avid sailor, he contributes in-depth expertise, years of experience and exceptional market knowledge to the company.

Joseph Coleman

Dynamic Analysis, Simulation & Design of Winch for Energy Extraction by Airborne Parafoils.
Joseph Coleman, Hammad Ahmad, Sean Nolan and Daniel Toal

Winch designs for tethered Airborne Wind Energy systems with cyclical power generation phases require detailed analysis to fully investigate and suitably design winching systems within the overall control system. Efficient and effective control of tether tension must be maintained and distributed between the winch controller and the kite control pod while simultaneously enabling efficient power take off. The airborne system is highly coupled to the dynamics of the ground winch system and as such detailed analysis of the interaction between these systems is required.
Dynamic analysis of this nature has been carried out by the authors. This analysis has led to the development of a winch design which is tailored specifically to the requirements of an AWE system. Through the use of clutching mechanisms the reel out and reel in functions can be mechanically and electrically separated, reversing only the components required to retrieve the tether/airborne system. This results in a reduced dynamic response time of the machine and enables the possibility of extending the generation phase into recovery phase.

Dries Cosaert

Simulation, Optimization and Control of High-Altitude Wind Power Generators.
Dries Cosaert, Kurt Elst

Design
A plane is attached to a carrousel by a tether, providing the possibility for a rotational start. Once in the air a winch controls the tether length. The first objective of this winch is ‘pumping’ the plane in the air like a kite on the beach. The second objective is generating power out of the flight pattern. This is based on a high force roll off (power generating) and low force roll up (power consuming) of the cable. The winch is suitable for both motor and generator mode.

Control
The plane has 2 kinds of controlsurfaces: the elevator and the ailerons. With these the pitch and roll is controlled using PID control. The parameters used to describe the model in the simulation, are derived from estimations, measurements and (future) wind tunnel testing.
A cable force sensor is to be implemented to measure the tension in the cable at all times. With a minimum of interfering effects a decent measurement accuracy is achieved.

DSM – Bright Science. Brighter Living.™

Royal DSM N.V. is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. By connecting its unique competences in Life Sciences and Materials Sciences DSM is driving economic prosperity, environmental progress and social advances to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials. DSM’s 22,000 employees deliver annual net sales of over €8 billion. The company is listed on NYSE Euronext. More information can be found at www.dsm.com

Aart De Wachter

Current development status of the laddermill kite power system.

Since AWEC 2010 the laddermill kite power system of TU Delft received some major improvements and changes. This presentation aims to show what has improved and how this affected the performance of the system.
The ground station has gone through extensive testing to determine the losses of both mechanical and electrical components. This has resulted in the replacement of certain components. The kite control units have been replaced with more reliable and advanced units. The hardware and software architecture makes the implementation of autopilot control possible. Different autopilot systems are currently under development.

In September 2010 the second generation purpose developed kite for the Laddermill was delivered. Special attention in this model was paid to reinforcement of critical areas. Further development of the bridle lines of this kite was done by TU Delft researchers. This lead to a significant increase of the load bearing capability and depower capability of the kite. These performance improving changes resulted in a big performance improvement of the Laddermill system between September 2010 and May 2011.

Moritz Diehl

ERC Project HIGHWIND: Optimization and Control of Balanced Power Planes

The ERC project “HIGHWIND – Simulation, Optimization and Control of High Altitude Wind Power Generators” at K.U. Leuven runs from 2011-2016. Its aim is to guide the development of the emerging technology from the modeling, optimization, and control side and to do only small scale experiments. Specifically, we develop and use ultra-fast embedded optimization for automatic control and state estimation, and we optimize and test intrinsically stable orbits (attractors) that alleviate the control tasks.
The hardware focus is on rigid wings, pumping power generation, and a novel way for automatic start and landing based on a rotation base, that as a by product allows indoors testing of our embedded control systems. Final aim is the automatic flight and startup of two balanced power planes, and the production of open-source software for the simulation, optimization and control issues of high altitude wind power. The talk presents joint work with Jan Swevers, Dirk Vandepitte, Boris Houska, Reinhart Paelinck, Milan Vukov, Kurt Geebelen, Mario Zanon.

EMCE Winches

EMCE produces lifting and pulling tools. EMCE specialized in development and production of special winches. Where standard series do not comply with customers needs, EMCE will help in finding special solutions. Our (special) winches are rated between 50 kg, and 50 Tonnes.

Christian Egenhofer

EU Innovation Policy

Christian Egenhofer (DE) is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels-based think tank specialising in EU affairs, where he is head of the Energy, Climate and Environment Programme.

He holds a Master’s degree in Administration from the University of Konstanz as well as a Public Law degree. He has worked as a consultant both for private and public organisations, including various Directorates-General of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement.

He is also a Senior Research Fellow and Jean-Monnet Lecturer at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee in Scotland/UK (since 1999). In addition to the University of Dundee, Christian Egenhofer teaches a number of courses on “EU integration and “energy and climate change” at the College of Europe both in Bruges and Natolin, the Solvay Business School MBA Programme of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the LUISS University in Rome.

Christian Egenhofer is Director of IMPACT – European Bureau for a Consulting and Analysis, a Brussels-based political consultancy.
Christian Egenhofer is member of several editorial boards. His most recent books include Beyond Bali: Strategic Issues of the Global Climate Change Negotiations (editor, CEPS 2008) and Climate and Trade Policy (co-editor with Carlo Carraro, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007).

Kurt Elst

Simulation, Optimization and Control of High-Altitude Wind Power Generators.
Dries Cosaert, Kurt Elst

Design
A plane is attached to a carrousel by a tether, providing the possibility for a rotational start. Once in the air a winch controls the tether length. The first objective of this winch is ‘pumping’ the plane in the air like a kite on the beach. The second objective is generating power out of the flight pattern. This is based on a high force roll off (power generating) and low force roll up (power consuming) of the cable. The winch is suitable for both motor and generator mode.

Control
The plane has 2 kinds of controlsurfaces: the elevator and the ailerons. With these the pitch and roll is controlled using PID control. The parameters used to describe the model in the simulation, are derived from estimations, measurements and (future) wind tunnel testing.
A cable force sensor is to be implemented to measure the tension in the cable at all times. With a minimum of interfering effects a decent measurement accuracy is achieved.

EnerKite – Wind Energy Redefined

Most of today’s wind turbines supply their rated output less than a quarter of time. At inland locations the gondolas grow on expensive towers into crazy heights. Offshore – apart from the expensive grid connection also the costs of the foundation and their fatigue push up the prices for environmentally friendly wind energy.

For the use of steady and strong winds above the hub heights of conventional wind-power plants onshore as well as offshore, kite wings offer a unique potential. The saving in the field of foundation, tower and wing is made possible by most modern control technology and efficient design. Wind energy from EnerKites one day could be more affordable than energy from conventional sources.

20 years of experience, expertise and excellence in the field of wind energy, flight mechanics and control as well as kite technology and automation represent the unique foundation of the new founded EnerKite company – towards the next generation of wind power plants.

http://www.enerkite.com

Ayat Forouzandeh

Investigation of various turbulence models
accuracy in cfd simulation of vertical axis wind turbines
PAYAM SABAEI FARD, MOHAMMAD LAYEGHI, AYAT FORUZANDEH, AMIRHOSEIN H.S BORUJERDI

Computational Fluid Dynamics can be defined as the analysis of systems involving fluid flow, heat transfer and associated phenomena such as chemical reactions by computer based simulation. Using this technique became popular since 1980’s in wind turbine industry to save significant amount of time and money which was required for wind tunnel test. In practice the assumptions made regarding the modeling of the turbulent component of engineering flows have proved to be a major source of error in wind engineering simulations. These fundamental errors are one of the main reasons why computational fluid dynamics techniques have not yet been fully accepted by the wind engineering community.
In this research, the authors has detailed and tested some of the most widespread techniques and compared their accuracy and shortcomings in computational wind engineering. In this respect standard, RNG and realizable k-ε model, k-ω, Spalart-Allmaras and Reynolds stress model have been taken into account for simulation of a vertical axis wind turbine performance.

Uwe Fechner

Performance factors for high-altitude wind power devices in pumping operation.

Until now only few experimental results of kite power systems in pumping operation have been published. Most of the available data pertains to theoretical analyses and simulations. For systematic improvement of the performance of kite power systems a new way to analyse the efficiency will be presented. A number of performance factors were derived, that are dependant on different aspects of the kite power system and can be optimized independently. It will be shown, how to use these performance factors to analyse the current measurement results of the TU Delft.

It will be explained:

how to improve average mechanical reel-out power

how to improve the duty cycle

how to reduce the electrical reel-in energy

how to calculate and improve the efficiency of the generator

One goal of the current developments at TU Delft is to increase the average electrical power output to about 16 kW without increasing the physical size of the kite or the winch. To reach this goal, a systematic analysis of the current system and a highly efficient winch are key factors.

Alain Goubau

Lighter-Than-Air Airborne Wind Turbines in the Military Market.
Ben Glass, Adam Rein, Alain Goubau

Altaeros Energies is developing an airborne wind turbine based on lighter-than- air technology. The Altaeros 100 kW turbine is targeted at displacing diesel consumption on remote sites – namely isolated communities, island nations, mining and logging sites, and military bases. Any military solution must be mobile, durable, autonomous, and have no impact on the mission at hand. The Altaeros turbine is designed to meet these requirements. In order to provide lift, the system uses a buoyant shroud initially deflated for transport. Components such as nacelle and blades are integrated into the shroud after its initial inflation. The base station winches and tethers are also constructed to be portable. This solution allows remote sites to relatively quickly take advantage of high altitude wind resources and avoids the complicated logistics and installation requirements of other ground-based renewable energy technologies. The solution also leverages existing helium distribution networks and operational know-how inherent to the military as it operates and services the aerostats already deployed in combat zones for surveillance and communication applications.

Kurt Geebelen

First Feedback Control Tests for Fast Flying Tethered Airplanes.
Kurt Geebelen, Milan Vukov

In order to be able to perform estimation and control experiments, a test platform suitable for rotation start of two tethered airplanes has been built. This platform allows us to perform experiments both outdoors and indoors, independent of wind and weather conditions. The platform consists of a rotating mechanical structure, the carousel, and one or two airplanes. The control architecture includes a PC based computer and a micro-controller inside the airplane. Orocos Toolchain has been chosen for the underlying control software layer. This toolchain is an architecture-independent component based framework for all aspects of real-time control for mechatronic and airspace systems.

Here we present the first experimental results, in which we performed control of the pitch and roll of the airplane with respect to local acceleration vector. Future research on this test platform includes development of a moving horizon estimator (MHE) for state estimation that fuses multiple sensors such as an inertial measurement unit (IMU),
a stereo vision camera system, a GPS etc. Alongside development of a MHE a model predictive controller (MPC) will be developed.

Dr. Hans Gruendel

Assystem Airborne Wind Turbine.
Bernd Lau , Maiko Paerschke, Olga Stoller, Dr. Hans Gruendel

Assystem, one of the large engineering service companies, introduces here its second generation Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT). While the first one was a lighter-than-air solution toke-off last summer, this one will be a hybrid Helium/wing lifted turbine containing 2 counter-rotating rotors. Both onshore and offshore operation is possible.
The rotor characteristics are adapted to the power transmission sky-to-ground. It is designed as a key component of the AWT to reach the Ekman layer. Power generation is grounded to minimize flight weight, even when using composite materials for most of the flying parts.
Up to now concept studies exists for the relevant features of the AWT. This contains extensive CFD-calculations for various flight conditions to optimize the wing profile of the casing. FEA calculations are carried off to minimize the weight with regards to stress peaks.
Elements for active flight control are integrated to avoid tumbling and to produce lift in times of low wind speed. In addition, 2 Helium balloons can be unfolding in case of uncontrolled flight conditions.
Plans are to bring to air the new demonstrator until the end of the year. The development is supported by the Assystem Berlin CFD, FEA and CAD competence.

More details can be found on www.airborne-wind-turbine.com.

Joris Gillis

Reversed pumping for tethered airplanes in no-wind conditions.
Jan Goos, Joris Gillis

The main advantage of kite-based wind-technology is that they can reach higher altitudes, where the wind is stronger, and more consistent. Obviously, the kite has to go through the lower atmosphere to get there, and it may be possible that there is little or no wind. Also, even if there is no wind, it can be more interesting to keep the kite flying then to land it en re-deploy it later. The Leuven Kite Power tethered airplane was therefore outfitted with a winch system. Power can be added by varying the cable length at key moments. This leads to a two-phased cycle: the tether is lengthened when the cable tension is low, and pulled in whenever the cable tension is high. The winch acts as a generator here. To produce energy, a similar pumping scheme can be used, using the winch as a dynamo when the cable is lengthened. The cable should then be reeled in when the cable tension is low, to end up with a net energy gain.

Jan Goos

Reversed pumping for tethered airplanes in no-wind conditions.
Jan Goos, Joris Gillis

The main advantage of kite-based wind-technology is that they can reach higher altitudes, where the wind is stronger, and more consistent. Obviously, the kite has to go through the lower atmosphere to get there, and it may be possible that there is little or no wind. Also, even if there is no wind, it can be more interesting to keep the kite flying then to land it en re-deploy it later. The Leuven Kite Power tethered airplane was therefore outfitted with a winch system. Power can be added by varying the cable length at key moments. This leads to a two-phased cycle: the tether is lengthened when the cable tension is low, and pulled in whenever the cable tension is high. The winch acts as a generator here. To produce energy, a similar pumping scheme can be used, using the winch as a dynamo when the cable is lengthened. The cable should then be reeled in when the cable tension is low, to end up with a net energy gain.

Boris Houska

Efficient numerical methods for computation of open-loop stable kite orbits.
J. Sternberg, B. Houska, M. Diehl

Wind power generation using kites has received an increasing attention in the last decade. The main concept of energy generation can be outlined as follows:
kites fly with high speed in crosswind direction and periodically pull their cables to drive a generator on the ground. Solving optimal control problems we are looking for open-loop stable kite orbits, for which the average power at the generator is maximal. As the motion of kites is affected by wind turbulences, robustness aspects have also to be taken into account. We discuss numerical methods for the computation of periodic and open-loop stable kite orbits as a solution of an optimal control problem taking the above issues into account.

Corwin Hardham

“Advances in Crosswind Power Generation”

Corwin Hardham, Ph.D, CEO and CTO of Makani Power is a mechanical engineer with a focus in controls as applied to renewable energy systems. He holds several patents within these areas. Corwin completed his doctorate at Stanford University developing active hydraulic platforms to improve gravitational-wave detection. His appreciation for design stems from a history of evolving equipment for competition in windsurfing and kiteboarding. Corwin has co-founded several companies, including Squid-labs, Potenco, Wakekite and Makani.

Ahmad Hodjat

Possibility and utilization of FEG in the country of Iran
+ One technological Approach

Iran, with a large overall amount of high altitude wind energy for at least half of the year is a good candidate for utilizing FEG. For installing the FEGs over Iran, we had to find, places with a safe aerial space which grant us reliable spots. To find these places one has to disregard aerial corridors, and other noted areas from all overhead space of the country in a full 3D map.

Overlap of seasonal data of optimized level and safe area show us the places that are appropriate to fly FEGs over. Next population density (like cities) and land features and high voltage transmission cable route for the desired spots was studied. Then by over lapping these series of data, first we found places over country that are safe and second, found the predicted produced energy during the year according to the skywindpower FEG capacity. This procedure has the potential to be a guideline for any other country.

In addition, a method is studied as a technological approach, combined of two available systems of Skywindpower and Magenn. This method will solve complexity problem of FEG design and is achieved by simpler technology.

Corey Houle

SwissKitePower – Novel Wind Energy Extraction Technology.

SwissKitePower is a collaborative research and development project being conducted by three Swiss technical institutes and Alstom Switzerland AG. With a recently awarded federal grant from the Competency Center for Energy and Mobility, the project aims to develop a vision of what a kite power plant will look like, how it will function and what markets it will serve. The long term goal of the project is to set the stage for the installation of a pilot plant within Switzerland which will demonstrate the functionality and long term reliability of the technology.

The roles of the project partners will be briefly presented, but the talk will focus on the kite test bench which is currently under development at FHNW. This system has been designed and constructed through a series of student projects over the past two years. Apart from serving as a useful tool for airborne wind energy research, its didactic value has also been noteworthy. An overview of the system as well as preliminary test and simulation results will be presented.

KiteFarms

KiteFarms was founded in 2008 to prototype and incrementally scale up airborne wind turbines (“flygens”) to medium scale (100KW). The intended use is to provide electricity to local utilities, generating both revenue and operating experience at manageable scale.

Key achievements include development of a robust and unique control algorithm. We are currently prototyping onboard power electronics with an eye toward making our proof-of-concept turbine airborne in the very near future.

For more information, contact Robert Lumley at robert.lumley@kitefarms.com

KITEnrg

K.U. Leuven – HIGHWIND

The kite energy research at OPTEC, K.U. Leuven is centered around the optimization and control aspects of this new technology and only to a lesser degree on experiments. Research has shown that fast and accurate algorithms are needed to control the kites under challenging conditions, such as during “takeoff” and “landing” of the kites as well as during sudden changes in wind speed or direction. Solving these issues are critical to the success of kite energy.

Patrick J. Lauffs

Airborne Wind Energy at the Technical University Munich.
Michael Schölkopf, Simon Bolten & Patrick J. Lauffs

The team of Windward Energy, located at TU Munich, is working on high altitude wind energy since 2009. It has developed and tested small-scale prototypes of kite steering units, as well as a ground station for kite-pumping. The team consists of two engineering students (Aerospace & Product Development) and one student of economics (Technology and Management oriented). All three are graduates from the scholarship ‘Manage&More’ from the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at TU Munich.

The thesis of Michael Schoelkopf, that will be presented, deals with the conception of a ground station for a 1 MW Kite wind power plant. A comparison of possible mechanical components, like generators, energy storage and gearing, for fulfilling the needed functions are in the focus. Furthermore an estimation is given about development, investment and operation costs to derive the total costs for electricity and make a prediction about the cost-effectiveness of such a system.
The steering unit that will be presented by Patrick J. Lauffs offers the ability to control the steering lines, as well as to change the angle of attack. It is designed to be manually controlled from the ground station, but also offers the possibility to run closed loop control algorithms based on the states of flight. The current development focuses on optimizing weight and maneuverability in addition to the implementation of automatic control.

Rolf Luchsinger

Towards the design of twings.

The Center for Synergetic Structures at Empa focuses on the development of twings (tethered wings) dedicated to airborne wing energy applications. We are convinced that the ideal airfoil for this application is a synergetic combination of the surf kite and the sailplane. Key features are a reasonable aerodynamic efficiency and minimal weight, while resilience under crash is a major asset
at least in the development phase. Our approach is to use Tensairity for the load bearing structure of the twing. Combining an inflated structure with cables and struts, Tensairity integrates the materials of the flexible and rigid wing on the structural level.
Our first prototypes with up to 8m span demonstrate the potential of Tensairity in kite design. Currently, the aerodynamic efficiency of various wing shapes is studied by means of vortex lattice method simulations.
Furthermore, a set up for instrumented towing tests is developed and the production process is investigated. Once airborne, our twings will produce electrical power within the SwissKitePower collaboration. The presentation will give an overview of our work in progress.

Guido Lütsch

How high altitude wind power plants will participate at the markets for emission reduction.

With the Kyoto Protocol for the first time in history politicians committed themselves to binding goals regarding the reduction of co2.

The protocol installed three instruments:

- Emission trading

- Joint Implementation and

- Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

Besides the “Controlled market” exists a Voluntary Market for Emission Reduction. On both markets emission reduction can be traded.

The current model expired at 2012, after which the co2-Emission Rights will be auctioned. Leading experts expect a value between 20 – 80 Euro/t by 2020! The presentation shows how high altitude wind power plants can participate on the Markets for Emission Reduction.

Mario Milanese

Kitenergy technology for offshore wind plants.
M. Milanese, Kitenergy srl – L. Fagiano, Politecnico di Torino/UC Santa Barbara – I. Gerlero, Modelway srl

The talk presents an investigation of the offshore application of the AWE technology under developement by Kitenergy, which exploits the automatic flight of tethered airfoils (e.g. power kites) to extract energy from wind flows blowing between 200 and 800 meters above the sea.
The key points of such a technology are described and the related operational parameters are optimized in order to maximize the generated power while satisfying constraints on the maximal loads exerted on the offshore support structure. The obtained results indicate that Kitenergy technology could bring forth significant advantages with respect to the actual wind turbine technology. In particular, the structural loads exerted on the offshore platform is 4-5 times less than that of a wind turbine of the same rated power and the capacity factor is 2 times higher. Thus, for a given cost of the support structure (fixed foundation, floating platform,..), Kitenergy technology can give 8-10 higher energy production with respect to wind turbines, reducing significantly the present offshore wind energy production costs.

Makani Power

Makani Power was founded in 2006 with investment from Google, Inc. Since its inception, Makani Power has been at the forefront of airborne wind technology development. Using small-scale, proof-of-concept prototypes, Makani has pioneered extended-duration flights, continuous power generation during autonomous flight, tethered autonomous hover and autonomous transition from hover to crosswind flight. Makani’s current 20kW wing program, funded by a grant from the United States Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, is an 18-month R&D plan to demonstrate all operating modes including launch and land.

David North

“Airborne Wind Energy Technology and Regulatory Gaps: A NASA Perspective”

Mr. North is a senior aerospace engineer in the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at the NASA Langley Research Center. He has provided mission analysis and conceptual design engineering for NASA’s space exploration program since 2004. He is currently serving as the mechanical engineering and mockup lead for NASA’s Altair lunar lander design team. Mr. North previously worked at Pratt & Whitney on various rocket engine and jet engine design teams including the Space Shuttle Main Engine, the RL-10 rocket engine, and the F-100, F-135 and Joint Strike Fighter jet engines. He also worked at Siemens designing low-emissions combustors for industrial gas turbines.
Mr. North holds several clean energy related patents. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas.

K.U. Leuven

OPTEC – K.U.Leuven Center of Excellence: Optimization in Engineering

The Optimization in Engineering Center (OPTEC) was created in 2005 as one of the twelve Centers of Excellence at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. OPTEC is a center of interdisciplinary research on engineering applications of mathematical optimization, emerging from four different engineering fields: computer science, as well as chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering. The main OPTEC objective is to shift the international state of the art by developing new and efficient formulations of the application-specific optimization problems that arise in each of the considered domains. Such new formulations will be the result of synergetic cooperation between top experts in both mathematical programming and each of the application domains, who are brought together within the OPTEC framework.

NASA Langley Research Center

When the United States decided to return to the moon, NASA returned to where the U.S. space program started, near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Va. NASA’s Langley Research Center was the initial home of the first astronauts, the Mercury 7. Now the Center is working to design and test a new launch abort system for the next generation space capsules. Solving the tough problems in air, space and earth science is what Langley is known for. Its reputation for exceptional research started soon after Langley was established as the United States’ first civilian aeronautics laboratory in 1917.

Researchers at Langley are focusing on some of the biggest technical challenges of our time: global climate change, access to space and revolutionizing airplanes and the air transportation system. Langley scientists study the atmosphere to improve life here on Earth and to better understand the conditions planes and spacecraft fly through. Langley engineers work on technologies to make civilian and military planners safer, quieter and more efficient, while designing tomorrow’s supersonic and even hypersonic aircraft. Langley researchers analyze materials and structures to help spacecraft withstand unforgiving extraterrestrial environments.

David J. Olinger

Airborne Wind Energy Research at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
David J. Olinger, Islam Hussein, Gretar Tryggvason, WPI

The UPWIND Energy Research Group at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been studying airborne wind energy (AWE) systems since 2007. Our work has focused on ground-tethered systems with ground-based power generation. We will summarize our efforts to design, construct, and test a working full-scale AWE demonstrator. In addition, we will review lessons learned, and show how the student work fits into an academic curriculum while preparing students for careers in renewable energy.

Our modeling work, on both rocking-arm and spooling line systems, will be briefly summarized. We introduce a dynamic model for the ground-tethered kite that fully incorporates the kite’s pitch, roll, and yaw motions. An adaptive controller that is effective for controlling the kite’s motion is developed. We present simulation results that demonstrate adaptive command following, where the kite’s pitch and roll angles follow commanded signals and the system is able to generate net power.

This work was supported by the NSF’s Energy for Sustainability Program through Grant CBET-0853579.

Bernd Oettigmann

Kite & Tech – Airborne Wind Energy in (Teacher-) Education
Combining outdoor sports & education with technichal knowledge and media skills

“Kite & Tech” links experience and sports with specialized theory. The guiding theme is the kite with its manifold applications in sports and technology. “Kite & Tech” combines two areas that usually only exist independently of one another – either in leisure time or when acquiring occupational skills.

A wide range of natural, technical and social areas of knowledge are involved in kite-flying and kitesurfing. Thus, we developed the following central questions:

• How does a kite fly? Why do certain steering movements create certain effects? Fundamental knowledge of aerodynamics and mechanics explain these circumstances.

• Which natural conditions must be considered? Meteorology is useful when assessing objective surroundings, whilst biomechanics helps us to understand more subjective preconditions.

• What economic and social relevance has the knowledge of kites already achieved? What are the historical roots?

• Offshore shipping and power generation are new applications of regenerative energy use with kites. How does this work, and what are the prospects of these developments for science, economy and education.

Wubbo Ockels

“High altitude wind power, from the early days until today”

Prof. Dr. Wubbo Johannes Ockels is a Dutch physicist and a former ESA astronaut. In 1985 he participated in a flight on a space shuttle, making him the first Dutch citizen in space. He currently is a professor of Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology at the Delft University of Technology, and the driving force behind the “Laddermill”, among a variety of other projects.

Wubbo Ockels was born March 28, 1946, and obtained his MSc degree in 1973 and subsequently a PhD degree in physics and mathematics in 1978 from the University of Groningen. His thesis was based on experimental work at the Nuclear-physics Accelerator Institute (KVI) in Groningen.

Reinhart Paelinck

Take-off and landing of “balanced kites”.

Using two kites, rotating around each other while connected to a Y-shaped tether, has a number of advantages over using only a single kite. First, overall drag is reduced significantly because only the end parts of the tethers move fast in crosswind direction. Second, the configuration counterbalances the centripetal forces that are induced by flying curves. This counterbalancing also acts as a major advantage in the retraction phase of the pumping generation approach, where both kites pull against each other and not in the direction of the main tether.
In order to validate this method, techniques for automatically launching and landing the two-kite system are developed and applied in conceptual ground station designs. The final small-scale balanced kite ground station, currently in development, will also be capable of launching and landing single kite systems, so control strategies can be verified.

Carlo Perassi

Carlo Perassi obtained his MSc degree in Computer Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin and since 1996 he has been working as an independent consultant for government organizations and companies in Italy and abroad, mostly on projects related to the analysis and development of Free Software based systems. He is a co-founder of WOW SpA and a board member of NOKE Srl, WOW SpA and WOW W3 Investments Ltd.

WOW SpA

As far as we know, WOW SpA was the first worldwide and it’s still the only financial holding founded by small investors to support the emerging airborne wind energy industry. Being a holding, we don’t produce goods or services: our only purpose is owning shares of other companies. At the moment, we have reached this target by buying shares of Kite Gen Research Srl, thus allowing small investors to take part in this industrial project for the exploitation of high altitude wind to produce electrical energy. Some investors are more interested in buying andr managing plants than buying shares or patents: this is the main reason why we have founded NOKE Srl, a company for a more general goal than WOW SpA. This short presentation is going to take place on the third anniversary of our foundation and it describes how we operate, the kind of projects we are funding, a survey of the activities of our associate or subsidiary companies and a few predictions about our future, leaving the last part of the talk for questions and answers.

Tiago Pardal

Omnidea’s System for Airborne Wind Energy.
T. Pardal, R. Fernandes, P. Silva

Omnidea has been engaged in R&D to harness clean and renewable energy from high altitude wind and has already been granted patents in this field. This proprietary technology under investigation consists of a lift generating airborne module that is anchored to a ground station by a tether cable, operating in a two phase cycle. During the power production phase the airborne module generates lift, pulling up on the tether cable which, at the ground station, drives for instance a flywheel connected between a winch and an alternator to produce electricity. When the tether cable is unwound, the recovery phase starts and the cable is reeled back to its initial position decoupled from the flywheel, completing a cycle.

The paper describes the airborne group and the reeler as well as the process of tensioning and unwinding the cable. The R&D covers a multitude of technological fields such as materials, aerodynamics and control required for the development of a wind power system capable of harnessing the energy potential of high altitude wind without the need for heavy towers or expensive elevated nacelles. A significant advantage is that the proposed system can easily be deployed offshore in either shallow or deep water.

Damien Reardon

Potential for Airborne Wind Power in Australia – Baseload?
Damien Reardon (Archangel Energy Pty Ltd, Sydney) – Igor Skryabin (Australian National University, Canberra) – Alex Radchik (University of Technology, Sydney)

This presentation provides an outline of the Australian energy market, a perspective on AWE technology/project developer opportunities, and touches on the significant potential for low emission, hybridized fully dispatchable AWE baseload plant. Using financial mathematics in relation to OTC swaps and exchange traded derivatives, we illustrate patented techniques whereby PPA writers and financial intermediaries can efficiently value such entities.
Australia has some of the most attractive, close-to-load wind resources, and is the highest per capita greenhouse gas emitter in the world. Historically, it has benefitted from very low generation costs thanks to a rich endowment of fossil fuel resources and low population. These costs are set to spiral, partly as a result of under investment, but predominately due to escalating fossil fuel prices carbon price uncertainty. Australia also has a relative abundance of both large and small scale off-grid load situated away from population centers and flight paths, and as such deserves special attention in this phase of AWE development.

Pauli Rautakorpi

Stable lying-eight orbits for kites.

A kite simulator to study kite flight when kite is controlled by a given passive periodic control for control angle has been made. It was noticed that simple sine function for control angle with suitable amplitude and period gives a stable orbit for kite and thus infinite flight time with fixed tether length and constant wind. The kite stabilizes itself to a unique lying-eight orbit in the middle of wind window with completely passive sinusoidal control when initial conditions are not too far outside the stable orbit.

With small tether length change within one orbit it is possible to get many lying-eight orbits with shape close to each other and generate significant amount of energy with passive control before kite gets out of control due to longer tether. Thus controls and orbits close to the stable orbits with fixed tether might be useful also for kite wind generators with variable tether length when modified with small
corrections.

Michael Schölkopf

Airborne Wind Energy at the Technical University Munich.
Michael Schölkopf, Simon Bolten & Patrick J. Lauffs

The team of Windward Energy, located at TU Munich, is working on high altitude wind energy since 2009. It has developed and tested small-scale prototypes of kite steering units, as well as a ground station for kite-pumping. The team consists of two engineering students (Aerospace & Product Development) and one student of economics (Technology and Management oriented). All three are graduates from the scholarship ‘Manage&More’ from the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at TU Munich.

The thesis of Michael Schoelkopf, that will be presented, deals with the conception of a ground station for a 1 MW Kite wind power plant. A comparison of possible mechanical components, like generators, energy storage and gearing, for fulfilling the needed functions are in the focus. Furthermore an estimation is given about development, investment and operation costs to derive the total costs for electricity and make a prediction about the cost-effectiveness of such a system.
The steering unit that will be presented by Patrick J. Lauffs offers the ability to control the steering lines, as well as to change the angle of attack. It is designed to be manually controlled from the ground station, but also offers the possibility to run closed loop control algorithms based on the states of flight. The current development focuses on optimizing weight and maneuverability in addition to the implementation of automatic control.

Dave Santos

Toward Gigawatt-Scale Kite Energy.

Kite stacks, trains, & arches are dense-array models for aggregated capacity with enhanced safety & reliability. Testing these methods led KiteLab Group to an Airborne Latticework concept validated in numerous scale-prototype experiments. Dense-arrays mitigated cubic-mass scaling penalty, boosted stream-tube efficiency, & maximized energy extraction by volume, with reduced surface sprawl & integrated control. “Minimal-mass-aloft” by ground-based actuation & avionics favored high-altitude operation, persistence in calm, & inherent stability. Persistent flight was shown by phased radial tugs or towing. Launching & landing succeeded by self-cascaded sequences. High L/D kiteplanes & turbines resisted mishap flown semi-captive in arrays. Self-oscillating power wingmills on ganglines & halyards “fired” in passive synchrony; a means to drive the largest generators. Hotswapping, depowering, & “killing” elements was shown. Arrays were assembled mid-air & towed into place. No critical barrier seems to prevent scale-up of kite energy, even legacy power plants retrofitted as kite hybrids. Aviation regulations offer a basis for large automated operations supervised by a Pilot-In-Control & Visual Observer, rotated in watches. Utility airborne energy in 2025 will involve Super-Density Operations (SDO) in NextGen Airspace.

Julia Sternberg

Efficient numerical methods for computation of open-loop stable kite orbits.
J. Sternberg, B. Houska, M. Diehl

Wind power generation using kites has received an increasing attention in the last decade. The main concept of energy generation can be outlined as follows:
kites fly with high speed in crosswind direction and periodically pull their cables to drive a generator on the ground. Solving optimal control problems we are looking for open-loop stable kite orbits, for which the average power at the generator is maximal. As the motion of kites is affected by wind turbulences, robustness aspects have also to be taken into account. We discuss numerical methods for the computation of periodic and open-loop stable kite orbits as a solution of an optimal control problem taking the above issues into account.

Roland Schmehl

Modeling and Simulation of Kite Power Systems.
Roland Schmehl, Jeroen Breukels, Joost Schwoll, Stefan de Groot

The flexibility of kites and tethers is a challenge for modeling and simulation of kite power systems. Especially for the lightweight membrane structure of an inflatable kite, structural dynamics and exterior aerodynamics are tightly coupled processes which dominate the flight dynamic characteristics and by that also the power generation of the system. For longer tethers, deformation can be substantial, especially in low-load cases, also affecting the achievable power output.
The presentation summarizes various modeling approaches pursued by the Kite Power research group. For flight trajectory optimization and automatic flight control, point mass or rigid body models are typically used for kite and tether. More accurate, but also more expensive, is a multibody system model using several hundred rigid bodies connected by joints to represent the deformable tube structure and a spring damper network to represent the canopy. Also an analysis tool, a Finite Element method, normally applied to airbag deployment simulations, is used to simulate the structural dynamics of kite under load.

Sören Sieberling

Discussion of a rotating platform for takeoff and landing of a tethered aircraft.

Takeoff and landing of a tethered aircraft poses an interesting challenge when requiring fully autonomous operation and turnaround. A solution in the form of a rotating platform is presented. The rotating platform consists of a rotating base and an arm carrying the aircraft at its tip. By spinning up the rotating platform airspeed is induced to the point that the aircraft can provide sufficient lift. After takeoff the tether is slowly reeled out resulting in a steady circular climb. Landing is performed by reversing this process. The characteristics of using the rotating platform for takeoff and landing are discussed including basic feasibility considerations. High g-loads and limitations in range (with respect to tether length) turn out to be primarily limiting for smaller scale systems. Small scale flight tests have furthermore indicated that stability of the tethered aircraft is not trivial, especially in outdoor environments. From a simulation and control perspective this reduces the margins for modeling uncertainties, requiring extra attention to modeling of the system.

SwissKitePower

SwissKitePower is a collaborative research and development project between three academic, non-profit institutions and Alstom Switzerland.
The goals of the project are to develop ‘novel wind energy extraction technology’ using tethered airfoils, or kites, and to promote this innovative new technology to the world.

Edwin Terink

Effect of design parameters on the flight dynamics of a Kiteplane
Terink, E.J., Breukels, J., Schmehl, R., Ockels, W.J.

Realizing the potential of the pumping kite power system as a concept for airborne wind energy generation requires a kite that is not only agile and aerodynamically efficient to maximize the power output, but also stable to minimize the control effort. In addition, a low lift mode – in kite terminology called depower – is necessary to implement a swift low power consuming downstroke. A kite that may fulfill these needs is the Kiteplane, an airplane-shaped kite constructed with inflatable beams and canopy surfaces. This lightweight airframe is connected to the ground station with a single-line tether and supported by lateral bridle lines. The lateral bridle couples the roll and yaw motion as a function of the pitch attitude with respect to the tether.
Simulating the 5-DOF model of the single-line single-kite system reveals that the amount and distribution of lateral aerodynamic surface area is decisive for flight dynamic stability. Furthermore, a power cycle of the geometrically optimized Kiteplane, with elevator and rudder control, yields an average power output of 1 kW/m2 and a capacity factor of 0.6 at a constant wind velocity of 10 m/s.

Kite Power research group of the Delft University of Technology

Current wind power generation relies on rigid supporting structures and is limited to altitudes up to 200 m. However, wind at higher altitudes is significantly stronger and more persistent. To access this major potential of renewable energy, the research group is developing a technology based on inflatable membrane wings which are tethered to a motor/generator unit on the ground. The present kite power demonstrator system operates a 25 or 50 m2 kite in periodic pumping mode to generate 20 kW mechanical reel-out power. Systematic testing and improvement has resulted in more than 100 completed pumping cycles since January 2010, indicating a continuous increase in cycle efficiency.

Supporting research is addressing scientific challenges such as automatic flight control, structural dynamics and aerodynamics of tethered inflatable membrane wings. This includes development of physical models ranging from fast, real-time capable point mass or rigid body models up to accurate analysis tools based on Multi-Body or Finite Element discretisations. A second focal area is the design of efficient motor/generator units. Research into kite power generation was initiated by Wubbo Ockels in 1993, followed by a patent application for the laddermill technology in 1997. The research group has been established in 2005 and presently comprises 7 staff members and a similar number of MSc students. Airborne Wind Energy is the subject of two MSc-level courses at the Delft University of Technology, “Kite Power Generation & Propulsion” and “Wind Power”, both having attracted more than 70 students in 2010.

Jeroen Vandersteen

Position and orientation determination of a maneuvering target based on moving horizon estimation.
Jeroen Vandersteen1, Moritz Diehl, Conny Aerts, Jan Swevers

In order to achieve precise and stable control of a kite, an accurate estimation of the vehicle’s orientation and position is required. This estimation is based on onboard angular rate, magnetic field and linear acceleration measurements, GPS information and external cameras. The various sensors, both onboard an external, are subject to measurement noise and bias. Some sensors, e.g. the magnetometer and the cameras, provide only vector observations and the estimation of the vehicle’s orientation is further complicated by the nonlinear quaternion kinematics. This paper presents the moving horizon estimation of the kite states, and shows that this outperforms the extended and unscented Kalman filters, which are the current workhorse filters in the aerospace industry. A moving horizon estimator determines the current state by solving a constrained numerical optimization problem considering a finite sequence of current and past measurement data, an available kinematic model and quaternion constraints. A symplectic integrator is developed to preserve the quaternion norm over the estimation horizon. The various sensors run at different sampling rates. This can be dealt with in a natural way in the moving horizon estimator.
The objective function to be minimized is typically a trade-off between minimizing measurement noise and process noise. In order to solve this constrained optimization problem in real-time, an efficient numerical solution method based on the iterative Gauss-Newton scheme has been implemented and specific measures are taken to speed up the calculations such as hot starting from previous solutions and exploiting the sparsity and band structure of matrices to be inverted.

Rolf van der Vlugt

Performance and Stability of Inflatable Tube Kites.

The performance of a kite power system depends for a large part on the performance of the kite. In a pumping system the glide ratio, the maximum allowable wing loading and the ability to power and depower can significantly affect the average input power to the generator.

Development work focused on increasing the maximum load and the depower ability of the Laddermill kite. A major part of the development work was done on the bridle system of the kite. This work showed the importance of a correct and well-balanced bridle. The bridle improvements resulted in a steady increase of depower and maximum load of the kite and increase of the average cycle power of the Laddermill system.

A steady power input to the generator is important to reduce the generator size for a given average power. Test results show that a large part of the power fluctuations are due to the vertical motion of the kite. This indicates the importance of limiting the kite mass.

Results from the kite-specific research will be presented.

Milan Vukov

First Feedback Control Tests for Fast Flying Tethered Airplanes.
Kurt Geebelen, Milan Vukov

In order to be able to perform estimation and control experiments, a test platform suitable for rotation start of two tethered airplanes has been built. This platform allows us to perform experiments both outdoors and indoors, independent of wind and weather conditions. The platform consists of a rotating mechanical structure, the carousel, and one or two airplanes. The control architecture includes a PC based computer and a micro-controller inside the airplane. Orocos Toolchain has been chosen for the underlying control software layer. This toolchain is an architecture-independent component based framework for all aspects of real-time control for mechatronic and airspace systems.

Here we present the first experimental results, in which we performed control of the pitch and roll of the airplane with respect to local acceleration vector. Future research on this test platform includes development of a moving horizon estimator (MHE) for state estimation that fuses multiple sensors such as an inertial measurement unit (IMU),
a stereo vision camera system, a GPS etc. Alongside development of a MHE a model predictive controller (MPC) will be developed.

Windward Energy

The team of Windward Energy has been working on high altitude wind energy as of 2009 and has developed and tested small-scale prototypes of kite steering units as well as a ground station for Kite Pumping. Located at TU Munich, it consists of two engineering students (Aerospace & Product Development) and one economics student (Technology and Management oriented). All three are graduates of the scholarship ‘Manage&More’ from the UnternehmerTUM GmbH, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at TU Munich.

A Business Plan was written to determine the attraction and holdbacks underlying the foundation of a company dealing with high altitude wind energy. In the same year the team was awarded ‘Best Business Plan’ out of 96 teams at TU Munich. Windward Energy gets supported by the Technical University Munich and the Institute for Advanced Study at TUM. The work of the team also resulted in theses at the Institute of Product Development and the Institute of Flight System Dynamics.

The team presented their work at numerous occasions such as the German Financial Times GreenTech Conference in Frankfurt to communicate high altitude wind energy as an important future technology and is looking for strategic partners and financing at the Airborne Wind Energy Conference 2011.

Bruce Weddendorf

Development of the Sky WindPower Flying Electric Generator.

For the past three years, our engineering team has been working to develop and demonstrate a practical Flying Electric Generator for Sky WindPower. The key feature of the Sky WindPower concept is the use of autogyro rotors. These rotors both provide lift to keep the Flying Electric Generator aloft, and the extract the power of the wind for direct conversion to high voltage electricity. They are also the
aerodynamic control surfaces used to stabilize the aircraft in flight.
This makes the Sky WindPower Flying Electric Generator concept uniquely effective at harvesting the energy in the wind. This presentation will explain our concepts and give a history of our development and testing of the Flying Electric Generator to date.

http://www.skywindpower.com/

Mario Zanon

Flight simulator: a tool for trajectory exploration.

Despite kite-based wind power generation shows a high potential, there is still a number of issues that must be coped with to ensure a future to this technology.
Planning an optimal operation of the plant and controlling it is one of those issues. One very delicate phase is the starting phase, as wind may be much slower on the ground than in higher altitudes and the plane is more likely to crash as the ground restricts the set of feasible motions.
In this context the flight simulator is not only a tool to validate plane models; it also gives the possibility to run several virtual experiments, especially for long trajectories for which the optimization problem could be difficult to formulate and solve.

Udo Zillmann

Do you want to invest in flying windmills?
Challenges and perspectives of airborne wind energy financing.

Besides many technological and legal issues, securing sufficient financing remains one of the main obstacles for the progress of airborne wind companies. Classic venture capital struggles to provide financing to this new industry. Too many open questions regarding technical obstacles, legal issues, business plans, market size, timing, profitability, reliability etc. exist to match with the risk profile and the 2 to 5 years investment horizon of venture capital funds.
A broader approach to the financing of airborne wind companies might be a solution to overcome some of these obstacles.

A specialized fund for the financing of airborne wind energy with a longer investment horizon could provide both, a vehicle for interested investors willing to help this fascinating new technology as well as a platform to increase the awareness of politics and public for the new technology. The presentation will discuss how the specialized airborne wind energy fund currently set up by Daidalos Capital could help to overcome the financing difficulties of airborne wind start-ups.

Sky WindPower

www.skywindpower.com

Wind Operations Worldwide

“As far as we know, WOW SpA was the first worldwide and it’s still the only financial holding founded by small investors to support the emerging airborne wind energy industry.”

The Airborne Wind Energy Consortium

About the Airborne Wind Energy Consortium

The Airborne Wind Energy Consortium unites the stakeholders of the industry into a single, focused voice. The primary purpose is to promote research, development and deployment of airborne wind energy worldwide. The Consortium is comprised of industry firms, academic researchers, utilities, government agencies and other stakeholders who work together to advance the industry.

It conducts key activities including:

supporting and drafting public policy initiatives

lobbying to influence regulatory agencies

providing educational and networking venues

designing and launching public relations efforts

The Consortium plays a crucial role in bringing together key players around the many vital issues affecting the industry.

Organizing Committee
reinhart@awec2011.com 

Jacqueline De bruyn
K.U. Leuven

Moritz Diehl (chair)
K.U. Leuven

Kurt Geebelen
K.U. Leuven

Guido Luetsch
NTS Energie- und Transportsysteme GmbH

Johan Meyers
K.U. Leuven

Reinhart Paelinck (co-chair)
K.U. Leuven

Richard Ruiterkamp
Ampyx Power

Roland Schmehl
Delft University of Technology

Jan Swevers
K.U. Leuven