EnerKíte’s ram air wing EK30 high up in the sky
Alexander Bormann Co-founder & CEO
EnerKíte GmbH Fichtenhof 5 14532 Kleinmachnow Germany a.bormann@enerkite.com www.enerkite.com
Airborne Wind Energy – a Game Changing Technology and a Global Success?
Alexander Bormann, Christian Gebhardt, Christoph Hauke, Stefan SkutnikEnerKíte GmbH
Wind Energy can power the world a hundred times over, transition towards renewable energy however struggles with volatility, low cost of fossil fuel, acceptance and other risks in renewable energy projects. With these facts in mind the EnerKíte team develops a unique technology, which can harness the stable and persistent high-altitude winds. Our aim is to make this abundant source of energy commercially viable, from small power ratings until util-ity scale, starting at comparatively low levels of maturutil-ity. With respect to scalability, minimal operational risks and low cost of energy, EnerKíte conducted intensive work on the implementation of the rotating launching and landing device and it’s unique semi-rigid wing-technology. Pro-ceeding from customer requirements, typical operating conditions, legal frameworks and logistical constraints the overall system and its specific sub-systems are cho-sen and developed towards an all integrated AWE system.
Recent price drops in the renewable energy market are forcing innovations to be competitive at 50 e/MWh or less at utility scale, even for off-shore projects. Competitive-ness however, can also be achieved from the energy sys-tems perspective with creating business models based on high onshore capacity factors, low system cost of electric-ity and all above flexibilelectric-ity of operation. EnerKítes are de-signed to deliver 90% of its rated power over 50% of the time of the year, enabling cost efficient base-load capa-bility with renewables.
The presentation will focus on recent achievements, the scalable product roadmap and an outlook towards 100% renewable energy systems in typical applications. Based on GIS-supported, parametrical studies, we can estimate, that EnerKítes at utility scale may power the world a hun-dred times over ś from prospective onshore operations at suitable sites around the globe alone.
