Kitemill, a Driver of Second-Generation Wind Energy!

Lode Carnel

Technical Manager – CTO Kitemill AS Magasinveien 35 PB 562 5703 Voss Norway lc@kitemill.no www.kitemill.no

Kitemill, a Driver of Second-Generation Wind Energy!

Kitemill AS Within the coming years, subsidies for renewable energy solutions (windmills and solar panels) are largely disap-pearing. The demand for clean energy sources is how-ever increasing and as such cost competitiveness will be a key issue. Airborne wind energy has been identified as a promising second generation technology but there re-main technical and commercial challenges for a wide de-ployment. Kitemill has been running a parallel road by developing its technology as well as preparing the foun-dation for a commercial deployment. This paper will dis-cuss the main technical characteristics as well as the busi-ness strategy of the company.

The core focus of Kitemill has always been the devel-opment of the most effective flying vehicle. It switched early on from soft to rigid materials because of its dura-bility and controlladura-bility. Due to an attractive investor model, Kitemill has access to valuable resources from the airspace and defence industry in Norway. This led to an optimal design balancing the aerodynamic and structural requirements of the vehicle. In addition, the control sys-tem for the kite turbines was developed for Kisys-temill. To realize this technical progress, the communication with civil aviation authorities was a key accelerator rather than a barrier for the development. This parallel track has re-sulted in Kitemill achieving a fully autonomous 5 kW pi-lot as well as securing the needed permits and customers for its first commercial plants. The ongoing and future work focuses on the upscaling of all components towards

a competitive product in the global energy mix.

The Kitemill wing in 2009