The search for alternative renewable energy sources takes to the skies
December 2009
Helicopter-like turbines are planned to be used by Sky WindPower to harness high winds based in northern California.
Half a dozen companies and other entrepreneurs met at a conference in northern California to discuss how to get their businesses of High-altitude wind power, essentially putting wind turbines in the air off the ground.
An important part of the planet’s search to replace energy from fossil fuels is the search for wind power. Research in high-altitude winds has shown that jet-stream winds can be far more powerful and reliable than winds closer to Earth’s surface, providing an immense source of energy if we can find a way to tap into it at a reasonable cost.
More than $50 million (£30 million) in investment is being put into high-altitude wind power. A host of start-ups and established companies are competing for position, each with unique proposals for capturing the force of the wind.
One proposed generator resembles a big floating ball that rolls in the wind, tethered by an electric cable 1,000ft off the ground. Another looks like a helicopter, with four huge rotors designed to fly nearly five miles into the sky. A third proposal involves a ladder of kites driving a generator, while a fourth project, backed by Google, turns the momentum of a huge kite at altitude into power.
Cristina Archer, Assistant Professor of Energy, Meteorology and Environmental Science at California State University, Chico, recently reported that high-altitude winds blow at speeds of more than 300mph across the globe.
Ken Caldeira, Professor of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science, who co-authored the report in the journal Energies, has said that there is enough energy in the high-altitude winds to “power civilisation 100 times over”.
Research has shown that electricity could be produced, in the long term, at less cost than conventional electrical generation. “The technical challenge is keeping control of the craft at such great heights,” Mr Shepard said, adding that the tethering and turbine technology was already proven. Commercial production was five years away, he added.
Michelle Williams from Artemis Solutions Group who specialise in recruiting for the Utility sector comments “The search for alternative energy sources is making science fiction a reality. Harnessing high altitude, a high velocity wind to generate low cost energy seems to be now with in our reach”.
