https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/alphabets-moonshot-wind-kites-to-fly-offshore
[video, images and links in online article]
Alphabet's Wind Energy Kites to Fly Offshore
Airborne wind energy company Makani has graduated from X's experimental
labs and is teaming up with offshore energy giant Shell
By Maria Gallucci
Renewable energy technologies seem to fill every nook and cranny of the
earth. Turbines generate power on the seafloor and off coastlines. Solar
panels carpet desolate deserts and abandoned wastelands. Volcanic
aquifers, mountain streams, and urban sewage systems all help to produce
electricity. For Makani, an airborne wind energy company, the next place
to tap is roughly 300 meters in the air.
The California startup recently spun out of X—Alphabet’s experimental
technology lab, or “moon shot factory”—to become an independent business
within Google’s parent company. Makani is also partnering with Royal
Dutch Shell in a bid to launch the startup’s high-flying kites where
they haven’t flown before: offshore.
Starting this year, Makani will begin testing a floating system for one
of its kites at the Metcentre, an offshore wind testing facility in
southwest Norway. The kite will be tethered to a small spar buoy, which
itself will be moored with a synthetic line and a gravity anchor. The
goal is to operate where today’s floating wind turbines can’t go, either
because it’s too challenging or cost-prohibitive to build supportive
platforms.
“Two-thirds of coastal waters globally are too deep for today’s wind
technology to economically access these resources. This is where we
think Makani can help," Fort Felker, the CEO of Makani, said in a blog
post published 12 February announcing the partnership. (An X
representative said Makani and X employees were unavailable for interviews.)
Makani is one of a few startups seeking to harness the higher-speed,
more consistent winds that blow at higher altitudes than conventional
turbines can reach. Before joining X in 2013, Makani garnered tens of
millions of dollars in support from Google’s philanthropic arm and the
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy at the U.S. Department of
Energy. The startup has since scaled its 20-kilowatt proof-of-concept
kite into a 600-kilowatt commercial prototype, which engineers are
testing at a site in Parker Ranch, Hawaii.
The current prototype features a carbon fiber wing spanning 26 meters,
or about the wingspan of a small jet airliner. A tether stretching
nearly half a kilometer long connects the kite to a ground station.
Prior to flight, the station rotates to position the kite downwind.
Engineers then use a flight control system to spin the kite’s eight
rotors and lift it vertically, like a powerful drone.
Once the kite reaches a height of about 300 meters, it begins gliding in
vertical loops, spinning the rotors and driving a permanent magnet
motor-generator. Electricity moves down the conductive tether and is
transferred onto the grid. Makani says its kites are 90 percent lighter
than turbines of a similar power rating, owing to the use of
“lightweight electronics and smart software” instead of steel.
As Makani transfers to the craggy coastlines of Norway, engineers will
tailor this system for the water. That’s where Shell comes in.
The energy giant, which reported $21.4 billion in 2018 profits, has
decades of experience operating offshore systems for oil and gas
production. It’s also investing heavily in alternative fuels, grid
systems, and early-stage renewable technologies. In recent weeks, Shell
announced it was acquiring Sonnen, a German energy storage company, and
the electric-vehicle charging startup Greenlots. With Makani, Shell is a
minority shareholder and technical partner, though deal terms remain
confidential.
“Shell has big ambitions to grow our renewable power business, and we
see great potential in floating offshore wind,” Dorine Bosman, vice
president of wind development at Shell, said in an emailed statement.
Shell is “delighted to be partnering with Makani to help deploy and test
their innovative energy kite technology in this environment,” she added.
Shell's moves reflect a broader push by oil and gas majors to diversify
their energy portfolios. As global transportation networks—cars, trucks,
trains, ships—begin to electrify, these behemoth businesses are looking
to claim a slice of the future. At the same time, countries and
companies worldwide are adopting climate change strategies and pushing
to replace fossil fuels with low-carbon technologies.
“Most oil and gas majors are thinking a lot about electricity these
days,” says Joshua Rhodes, a research associate at the University of
Texas at Austin's Energy Institute. “They’re in the business of
providing energy for mobility.” In that context, it makes sense for
Shell to partner with a cutting-edge startup like Makani.
"For them to get that on their radar in the early stage would be
advantageous to [Shell]," Rhodes adds.
Yet as Makani expands into the offshore environment, Prashant Khorana, a
renewable energy analyst at the consulting group Wood Mackenzie, in
Denmark, says the technology has more potential to thrive on land.
Khorana says he’s skeptical that the wind energy kites will be able to
compete with floating offshore wind farms, even if the buoys can access
trickier locales. The high-flying turbines won't likely be able to
produce power at a similar or lower cost of electricity than the
multigigawatt floating-turbine pilot projects popping up worldwide. It's
also still unclear how flying kites will be regulated in offshore
environments, he added.
However, airborne wind energy systems could establish a solid niche
market in other challenging terrains, such as as mountainous areas where
it’s too cold or dark to use solar panels or too rugged to install wind
turbines. "It's impossible to say 'no' to [technologies] like this,
because there's always niches they can play in," Khorana says.
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