Posted 05.07.2010 at 3:11 pm
9 Comments
Sea Kites
An artist's rendering shows sea kites harnessing the power of ocean tides. They would be tethered to a power station on the ocean floor.
Courtsey Minesto
A new underwater kite being developed in Sweden could be a low-cost, low-impact method for harnessing ocean energy. Swedish start-up Minesto has obtained $2.5 million to start testing the kite in Northern Ireland next year.
The kite, called Deep Green, is able to capture tidal energy at 10 times the speed of the water in which it operates.
It consists of a 3-foot-long turbine attached to a rudder and a 39-foot wingspan, tethered to the ocean floor with a 330-foot cable, according to CNN.
The turbine rotates quickly and doesn't require a gear box, making it lighter and cheaper than other alternatives, according to Minesto representatives. The key is the tether -- anchoring and steering the kite allows it to capture much more energy. The kite travels 10 times faster than the water it operates in, resulting in 1,000 times more energy, the company says.
The prevailing methods of capturing tidal energy mimic two common power sources -- there are tidal barrages, similar to the method used in hydropower stations, or stream systems, which capture the motion of the tide and work like wind turbines. The kite falls into the latter category, but its airfoil design is fairly unique. Submerged turbines are more commonly designed like windmills under the sea.
The project started at automaker Saab in 2003 and Minesto spun off in 2007. CNN says the company hopes to begin scale-model trials next year at Strangford Lough, in County Down, Northern Ireland, which is already home to a commercial tidal power device operated by SeaGen, a British renewable energy company. The prototype is expected to produce 500 kilowatts of power.
Sea kites would need fairly large swaths of ocean to operate, but they would inhabit small parts of that swath at any given time, as they moved in figure-eight patterns through the water. Minesto representatives say in the future, the technology could be combined with offshore wind farms to produce ocean-driven power plants.
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I imagine that the accumulation of algae and barnacles around the system is already solved.
The fact that it's moving so much probably mitigates a lot of potential algal growth.
or worse, some guy in a with a jet boat wearing his Ed Hardy shorts will rip that area up.
I wonder if ocean life will leave it alone...or try to eat it =P lol
I don't see why we don't just harness the power of Sol for all of our energy. It's an unlimited and clean energy source. We can do better than "sea kites".
is it self guiding? what stops it from crashing into sea/ocean floor?..the demo shows it hooked up to something above the water line..not the best demo that they could do or highly accurate, i understand this is just an early demo or something..but i cannot believe this will solve many if any energy problems..or be cost effective in the long run with malfunctions and build costs factored in, its a nice idea..but i prefer less flighty (winging around in figure 8's i mean) ideas, tidal energy is a good source of energy though..that and wind and solar energy are the ways to go..until we figure out that whole nuclear fusion thing completely and successfully
Talk about highly inefficient. Just imagine all of the tidal water bypassing this kite as it swoops through the water. It's harnessing only a fraction of the tidal energy going by.
Some hydrofoil water skier / designer dreamed this up no doubt.
Why a figure eight?
Why not just a circle? And in fact, put 50 of them, one behind the other, all "flying" in a circle around a central pivot cable.
One word...Whales..
This thing may kill whales like windmills kill Hawks. The "flight" path could be a killing zone.
Surface ships collide with them occasionally so an encounter is certain, and these kites are hauling asymptotes...
(Actually asymptotes don't touch :)
And they're hauling that cable, which is fairly thin. They might make enough noise to scare the big guys away.
Anonymole: "Talk about highly inefficient. Just imagine all of the tidal water bypassing this kite as it swoops through the water. It's harnessing only a fraction of the tidal energy going by. Some hydrofoil water skier / designer dreamed this up no doubt. Why a figure eight? Why not just a circle? And in fact, put 50 of them, one behind the other, all "flying" in a circle around a central pivot cable."
Actually, my bet is that it was a kiteboarder who thought of this. A traction kite generates a lot of power by constantly moving, so that the fluid (air for the kite, water for this thing) is constantly moving at speed over the surface generating lift (Barnoulli's Principle). Here, the lift is used to keep the kite moving to increase speed of water through the turbine. But if a kite were to move in a circle then part of the time it would be running downwind (or in water, down-current), which would mean no lift, crashing the kite. The figure-8 pattern solves that. Check this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLRh_ucYjgQ