Ground station for Airborne Wind Energy

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) captures the strong and constant winds at high altitudes up to 500m. Compared to conventional turbines it more than doubles the output per area because of the stronger winds at height. By avoiding tower and foundation, 90% less material is used. This makes AWE easily portable to be deployed at remote sites and on lightweight floating platforms. AWE more much more than doubles the wind power potential worldwide, as the reach and the light weight opens many more sites as potential wind power locations. And with minimal environmental impact. At scale, large material efficient AWE plants has potential to produce energy at lower cost and more steady than current wind power technology. An AWE prototype will be developed and tested. It will consist of a TWING (Tethered Wing) with TWINGTEC’s patented Vertical Take-Off and Landing architecture (VTOL), Diinef's Fluid Power Ground Station (FPGS) with power smoothing, incorporating digital hydraulic winch motors from IMENCO with patented electronic cylinder valves provided by DIINEF. Once proven in the project, the technologies will be the basis for scaling into the MW range. Compared to all electrical ground stations, the digital hydraulic technology use much less critical minerals, can easily be re-used or re-cycled and has higher energy efficiency. The technology builds upon know-how and components developed for the maritime and oil and gas industries, and they are now becoming valuable for sustainable energy production.