The conference represents a great opportunity for scientists and engineers, entrepreneurs and investors to gather and share their experiences, findings, opportunities and visions for airborne wind energy.

The program of the AWEC 2021 will include

• plenary talks by selected experts from international agencies, industry and academia
• contributed talk sessions in two parallel tracks
• panel discussions covering all aspects of airborne wind energy
• poster sessions, preceded by plenary spotlight presentations

Kitepower will also be part of the conference’s program with two presentations:

Regular session:

• Thursday 23 June, 11:20-11:35, Room Colombo (T.2.1):
  Company Developments – “First Airborne Wind Energy Operation on a Tropical Island”
  with Kitepower’s CTO, Joep Breuer.

Plenary Session V:

• Friday 24 June, 15:15-15:20, Room Colombo (T.2.1):
  OEM Presentation – “Kitepower’s Journey to the Islands and Beyond”
  with Kitepower’s Founder CEO, Johannes Peschel.

We look forward to an insightful event filled with fascinating documentations of industrial developments, ongoing research projects and engaging panel discussions about key themes for the commercialisation of the AWE technology. In addition to the learning component, the conference will also be the perfect opportunity to network within the emerging community.

AWEC 2021 – In dedication of a wind energy giant, Henk Hutting

Henk Hutting is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the modern wind energy industry in the Netherlands. He began his career in wind energy in 1982 when he got involved in the development of the first wind farm in the country.

He then coordinated a comprehensive research and development program covering all aspects of wind farming after which he set up and managed the wind energy department of energy consultancy KEMA. He continued as managing director of the joint venture Smart Tower, specialising in the development of support structures for offshore wind turbines, after which he became CEO of Win-Wind, a wind farm development company.

In the beginning of 2007, Henk started his own company, Hutting Windenergie BV, also continuing as CEO and shareholder of Growind, a company to develop and own a 63 MW wind farm in the Netherlands and as CEO of Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd, a company to develop and own a 300 MW wind farm in Kenya. In early 2008, he led the founding of the Vader Piet entities to build and operate the wind farms on the Caribbean island Aruba. The same year he joined NuCapital as CEO, specialising in the development, financing and commissioning of wind energy projects in the Caribbean and Central and South America. As an investor and board member, Henk was also pushing the improvement of the efficiency of solar panels and his interest in renewable energies broadened when he joined Futerra in 2015 as investor and Chairman of the Board, developing a factory in Portugal to produce BioCoal out of waste wood.

In 2018, Henk joined the board of Kitepower BV to prepare for the commercial viability of the technology.

“We would probably not be where we are today if it wouldn’t be for his engagement and drive, his guidance and experience. We are fortunate to have known and worked with him”, said Kitepower CEO Johannes Peschel. 

Henk Hutting was a true giant of wind energy and Kitepower (and many more) is standing on his shoulders. Henk was a pioneer of wind energy, an ambassador of airborne wind energy systems – let’s all try to make Henk’s vision for airborne wind energy a reality! 

We hope to meet you all in Milan during the AWEC 2021 (22–24 June 2022) to discuss the future of wind energy, reminisce about the giants that came before us, and the future we are trying to build. Kitepower has already gotten far thanks to people like Henk but we are not done by a long shot – we are currently ramping up for the next leap, and you can be part of it. For more information go to https://thekitepower.com/crowdfunding/.

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Roland Schmehl, lead of the airborne wind energy research group at TU Delft and Co-Founder, Advisor at Kitepower, co-organised this event with Oliver Tulloch. Oliver is working at the Wind Energy and Control Centre at the host institution, University of Strathclyde. The Airborne Wind Energy Conference 2019 took place in Glasgow, United Kingdom on 15th-16th October.

Those two days was about wind, networking and sharing the process of the leading companies in the word of AWEsystems. You could have met with Makani, Ampyx Power, SkySails Power, Kitemill, Enerkite and many other AWEsome company representatives. In the Book of Abstracts you can find some interesting informations about the improvements accompanied with sneak peek pictures of the working teams.

So, what happened with kitepower since AWEC 2018?

From the beginning of 2018 until October 2019, Kitepower has performed 92 flights on 65 days at their pilot site in Valkenburg.

Currently, Kitepower is focusing on operating the Kitepower system for longer periods while increasing the power output and reducing the effort for supervision. After this phase, Kitepower will be able to implement more pilot systems in and outside of the Netherlands.

Let us present our 100sqm kite which is the next step for Kitepower to achieve our dream: “Our mission is to develop the first commercial kite powered energy system.”

Last but not least, Kitepower team aimed to further automate the tuning of new kites by testing them in various operating conditions such as rain, fog as well as low- and high wind speeds.

The post Kitepower’s Summary on AWEC 2019 appeared first on Kitepower.