62 Gábor Dobos managing director Chemotronik R&D Ltd. 3078 Bátonyteremye Május 1. út 2. Hungary dg@ifo-energy-unlimited.com www.ifo-energy-unlimited.com www.chemotronik.hu Phone/Fax: +36 32 350 824 Skype: dxxxxg
Un-tethered Autonomous Flying Wind Power Plant
Dr. Gábor Dobos Chemotronik R&D Ltd., Hungary IP rights.
Hungarian patent. Registration number 227 468
PCT International Application No: PCT/2010/ 000028, published under WO 2010/106382 A3.
Because of financial reasons the invention became a public property.
The reasons for seeking a new solution
Conventional wind power plants (WPP) have their limits due to the low energy density and fluctuations of surface winds, as well as their low efficiency. The idea of harnessing high-altitude winds seems to be promising. Tethered flying energy harvesting devices have been known for a long time, but they also have their drawbacks, probably as a result of the tether itself and the related complications.
The solution
An untethered autonomous flying energy-harvesting unit (an airplane, glider or the like) as well as a receiver ground-sta-tion are integral parts of the complete system. These two physically detached parts constitute a logistic unit, and their collaboration according to a fixed timetable ensures the real-ization of the invention. A ground-station could support sev-eral flying units.
Temporary energy storage on the plane is the most critical problem of the idea. The invention itself grants a great de-gree of freedom to the user in choosing the method of energy storage. Practically any kind of physical, chemical, electrical or other solution may be used as an energy storage medium, among them liquid air or batteries too. The latter two are the preferred competing methods. Both are subjects of ongoing
research projects all over the world. It doesn’t matter to us which development wins in the end (or even if a third possi-bility proves the best). Any of them can be applied by the IFO. The system is utilizing well known technical solutions, but the result of their synthesis and unique application has yield-ed new routes and so far unutilizyield-ed possibilities in wind ener-gy production. The invention is feasible but the details need significant further R&D, as well as investment.
Benefits
• Powerful high altitude winds and especially the much larger airspeed of a DS-ing glider than the speed of the prevailing wind allow for smaller and lighter devices. • Our flying energy harvesting glider is capable of following the advantageous winds. There is no other WPP capable of doing so.
• It does not need large areas to function like convention- al WPP-s do. It needs only a small airport, or rather, a short grassy runway.
• Generates no infrasound and does not disturb birds. • Dispatchability.
• The system is able to function as a peak load power plant. • “Onboard” superconductive technology
• Short payback time, excellent profitability even without any government subsidy.
Upon preliminary calculations, this project needs about a 4-6 year R&D period and 60MUSD funding for R&D and the im-plementation of a Pilot Plant of 20 MW rated power. The pay off time is about 4-5 years. This 60MUSD is not more than the cost of a conventional WPP of the same power today.
