Energy from kites!

A popular childrens toy could well could provide the next breakthrough in renewable energy! After successful testing in one of Europe’s top research centres with scientists from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, 10 kilowatts of power was produced by flying a giant kite tethered to a generator. 10 kilowatts of power is enough electricity to run 10 family homes, and all from a 10-sq metre kite. The researchers are planning to test a 50kW version in the near future, called Laddermill, eventually they hope to produce a version with multiple kites that could generate as much as 100 megawatts (this could power 100,000 homes!)

The scientists from Delft University are not alone. Google.org (a philanthropic arm of the Google web-search company) invested 10 million dollars last year in another kite company based in the US called Makani. There is also an Italian company called Kitegen which has proposed a theoretical design for a kite system generating a gigawatt of electricity using 12 sets of four 500 sq metre kites.

The aim of all these teams is to tap into the vast energy resources of high-altitude wind (a kilometre or more above the ground), where winds carry hundreds of times more energy than at ground level and are also more consistent. According to Ken Caldeira (a senior climate scientist at Stanford University), the total energy contained in high altitude wind is 100 times greater than the amount of energy currently required by the whole planet.

Commercial wind turbines simply cannot be built high enough to take advantage of these winds at high altitudes but kites can easily reach a kilometre or more of altitude. In Europe there are many sites suitable, thanks to the high-speed jet stream, for large scale power generation using kites.

The kites generate power by pulling on a wire attached to a generator on the ground, the rapid speed of the rising kite generates copious amounts of power then once the kite has reached maximum altitude it is simply reeled in to repeat the process.

Unlike many other proposed alternative technologies, high altitude wind power is available right now, it is estimated that with sufficient capital investment, commercially viable systems producing electricity at around 10c per kilowatt hour could be established in less than 5 years.

Nanotechnology for Alternative Energy Sources

Nanotechnology (sometimes referred to as simply Nanotech) is essentially the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale (100 nanometers or smaller). The science of nanotechnology involves developing materials or devices with wide ranging applications including energy production.

Creating devices smaller than 100 nanometers has led to the development of many new ways to harness, store, and transfer energy. Benefits of this new technology have already been utilised in a variety of mainstream designs offering increased efficiency of lighting and heating products and increased electrical storage capacity of devices.

Over the last few decades our energy consumption needs have increased dramatically while our energy production has remained fairly constant. The US has traditionally relied on imports of fossil fuel to satisfy energy needs. Finding an alternative energy source has become an economic priority and nanatechnology will most likely lead the way in terms of making alternative energy sources economically viable.

Examples of nantechnology use with alternative energy production

• Methanol - a potential alternative fuel, methanol can be produced from municipal waste and biomass and when combined with steam can produce hydrogen (another clean alternative fuel). This process requires the use of a metal catalyst for efficiency. The materials used for the catalyst are extremely important and using advanced tunnelling microscopes, nanotech companies can study the effects of catalysts and create new materials to improve efficiency.
• Battery design - the present battery technology using conventional materials has been a severe limiting factor on the performance of electric vehicles. However using nanotech lithium ion battery materials, Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc has promised performance from an all-electric vehicle to rival performance and comfort of today’s internal combustion-engine cars. A sedan with a 200-plus-mile range and a recharge time of under 6 minutes using a battery that is completely safe from explosion, with an estimated 15-20 years lifespan and producing no carbon dioxide emissions of any kind!
• Power transmission - NASA has just awarded a contract to the Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory at Rice university to produce a one meter length of carbon nanotube wire. this wire will be around one sixth of the weight of conventional copper cable and be over ten times more efficient in the conduction of electricity. Constructed of tiny, molecular cylinders formed purely of carbon atoms, these nanotubes lare much more resistant to heat and could also revolutionise the electronics industry allowing them to create faster processors by replacing copper interconnects with nanotubes. This technology in the near future could be used to construct power transmission lines built from carbon nanotubes that could conduct electricity across great distances without loss, this could make remote alternative power options such as desert based solar and wind collector farms commercially viable.