• The project is a collaboration between Kitepower, RWE, partners Mayo County Council and funding from Interreg North West Europe

RWE, a world leader in renewable power generation put its new innovative Airborne wind test facility in Ireland to work for the first time, enabling the maiden flight of a new kite technology by Kitepower in Bangor Erris, County Mayo, Ireland.

RWE is committed to exploring and supporting industry innovation and technological advances across all fields of wind power. Airborne Wind Energy is a new type of wind energy technology that RWE is testing in Ireland in collaboration with its technology partner Kitepower, its partners in Mayo County Council and the MegaAwe Project, with funding from Interreg North West Europe.

The site in Bangor Erris was chosen after an extensive global search for a suitable location to develop this technology. The site received planning permission earlier this year to allow the Kitepower device to fly.

Cathal Hennessy, Head of Onshore Renewables Development (Wind, Solar and Storage) UK & Ireland said: “We are delighted that RWE is helping to develop this new wind energy technology with our partner Kitepower. RWE is exploring many different industry innovations to see if airborne wind technology could complement our existing renewables portfolio of offshore and onshore wind, solar energy and battery storage. With low capital expenditure and fewer materials, Airborne wind has the potential to play a role in helping to drive down the cost of energy further. It will use winds at higher altitudes which are stronger, steadier, and more constant. It can be used onshore as well as offshore and in combination with other technologies such as solar electricity generation.”

Johannes Peschel, CEO Kitepower, added “Kitepower, as the name suggests, uses a large kite structure with a hybrid inflatable and fixed fibreglass skeleton to hold the kite open. It has a wingspan of 60 square meters and weighs only 80kg, including the Kite Control and sensor unit. We will test our Kitepower Falcon system in Bangor Erris, which can generate up to 100kW. The Kite will initially be flown at up to 350m altitude and over the coming months could be tested to fly at greater heights. The dedicated test hub in Bangor Erris is the first of its kind and will help us further accelerate the development of our system. We are extremely proud that we have been able to contribute to the realization of this test hub and are committed to adding this new class of renewables to our global energy mix in the near future.”

Kitepower uses a Kite Control Unit (KCU) attached to the tether, to control the direction the kite flies. The Dyneema tether (an ultra-strong rope which has a higher strength than steel wire of the same dimension but less than one tenth of its weight) is attached to a Ground Station, housed in a conventional 20 foot container. The ground station has a generator which converts the mechanical energy of the kite into electricity. Electricity is produced in the “Reel Out Phase” when the kite is flown in a cross-wind figure of eight pattern achieving a high pulling force which pulls out the tether from the winch in the ground station.

During this Reel Out Phase, the Kitepower “Falcon” produces electricity. When the tether reaches its maximum, the kite is directed back to directly above the ground station by the KCU and the tether is reeled in using a small amount of energy. This is known as the “Reel In Phase”. When the Reel in Phase is complete, the Reel Out Phase begins again. Normally these two phases take 100 seconds, 80 seconds for Reel Out and 20 seconds for Reel In.

RWE has established itself as a key player in the Irish energy market with an expanding portfolio of projects in development and operation, operational since 2016, the company has two offices, one in Kilkenny City and one in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. RWE has one onshore wind farm in Kerry and two battery storage facilities, in Monaghan and Dublin. RWE’s objective for Ireland is to grow its renewable energy business, where RWE will be a long-term energy partner for Ireland during the country’s energy transition to 2030 and beyond. RWE has over 2 gigawatts (GW) of projects in development, comprising two offshore wind farms (1,750MW) and ten onshore wind farms ( 520MW) incorporating hybrid technologies.

The post RWE and Kitepower Deliver New Test Site for Airborne Wind in Ireland appeared first on Kitepower.

This is a groundbreaking milestone for Kitepower and the whole AWE industry, namely:

• This is the very first Kitepower operation to be carried outside of the European continent
• This is the very first Airborne Wind Energy system to be operated in the Caribbean

The vessel carrying Kitepower’s Falcon 100kW AWES has shipped from the port of Eemshaven at the beginning of September and arrived on the island of Aruba a couple of weeks later. Delivering the Kitepower Falcon overseas represented a great opportunity to put to the test the system’s logistics and once more prove its huge transportation and installation advantages. The entire trip went smoothly, two standard trucks, one for the Kitepower system and one for the Greener battery, were all we needed to reach the deployment site on land. Whereas transporting conventional wind turbines is no mean feat – with all the overweight and over-dimensional freight-related issues – the transportation of the Kitepower Falcon 100kW AWES validated the system’s strategical potential when it comes to reaching rural and remote areas via ordinary and even narrow roads.

The deployment of Kitepower’s AWE technology is taking place near the 30MW Vader Piet Wind Farm, NuCapital‘s first involvement on the island dated 2009, led by wind energy expert and Kitepower’s mentor & investor Henk Hutting (1952 – 2021).

“Henk has been a strong supporter of Kitepower and I am incredibly grateful that part of our common dream – bringing Kitepower to the Caribbeans – becomes reality. It is especially satisfying that we are flying in front of a wind farm that was developed by him and I hope he will be watching from his star” adds Kitepower’s Founder CEO, Johannes Peschel.

The project shows how MoD’s strategic foresight activities, which take climate change into consideration, have recently been stepped up throughout applicable regional cases. Kitepower is proud to be supporting the Dutch Ministry of Defence with innovative energy solutions in operational situations.

Kitepower & The Dutch Ministry of Defence – Background

It was November 2016 when the relationship between the Dutch Ministry of Defence and Kitepower first started. Back then, Kitepower had just won the Innovation Competition themed “Energy for Military Operations” aimed to foster the development of a 100kW Airborne Wind Energy System capable to support the ministry’s decarbonization commitment (Operationele Energiestrategie, OES-2015). Find out more.

Following up on the Innovation competition, in early 2018, Kitepower successfully performed a training session for the Dutch Defence in order to introduce the Falcon 100kW system and its operation. This was the first time that an external crew operated a Kitepower AWES. Find out more.

After the Innovation Competition, in 2019 Kitepower received a second valuable collaboration agreement with the Dutch Defence focused on reporting the benefits of deploying Kitepower throughout Defence’s field operations, named: “Kitepower System for the New Defence Technology Program” and this is what ultimately led to the project taking place in 2021 on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Aruba. The collaboration agreement had developed within the framework of the National Technology Project (NTP), a program that stimulates the development of prototypes and demonstration of defence-specific applications.

The Dutch Defence aims to reduce dependence on fossil fuels across its worldwide campaigns. Kitepower’s innovative wind energy technology offers an environmentally friendly solution for deployments in remote locations, where logistical supply lines cannot be guaranteed, by reducing diesel consumption and increasing energy independence.

Lieutenant Colonel Paul van der Heul affirms “Kitepower is one of the interesting possibilities of energy supply. We see the application as Defence in the operational and civil domain, it has social added value. This is one of the reasons for Defence to participate in this project. This offers opportunities, especially in remote and windy areas such as islands”.

Airborne Wind Energy on Islands

Airborne wind energy systems work extremely well on islands due to high coastal winds ensuring strong steady power generation. Islands offer fundamental challenges for any energy supply, as the cost of running a power line or even supplying fuel to local generators are often several times what the same would cost on the mainland. For this reason, energy tends to be supplied by generators running on diesel imported at very high costs. Kitepower offers an excellent solution to reducing the fuel consumption, cost and environmental footprint of these generators.

Kitepower can be integrated into microgrids allowing to unlock the potential of airborne wind energy When integrating Kitepower in combination with batteries, diesel generators can be switched off completely. Hybridizing with Kitepower results in less diesel consumption for more clean energy, culminating in considerable financial savings even for areas that do not experience consistent high wind speeds.

Johannes Peschel, Founder CEO of Kitepower, says: “A dream finally came true: A milestone that I have envisioned since the incorporation of Kitepower five years ago. We have finally shipped and flown a Kitepower system on a Caribbean Island. It is rewarding to see one of our kites flying next to Henk’s wind farm (Vader Piet in Aruba) and I believe it is truly remarkable to be able to witness what Kitepower has accomplished in the course of the last years. I would like to thank Henk, the department of Defense, all supporters and especially the Kitepower team for the blood, sweat and tears that have been put into the system and look forward to many more Kitepower operations in Europe and overseas!”

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