Elsevier is the world's largest publisher of medical and scientific literature. The publishing company is headquartered in Amsterdam, but has significant operations in the US, UK and elsewhere in the world.

The report on upcoming technologies being developed in the field of wind power. The report had a European perspective, with 33 contributors, with Simon Watson from the University of Delft in the Netherlands as lead author. Two of the contributors were from Norway. There was a chief scientist at the Energy Systems Department at SINTEF, John Olav Giæver Tande and a professor at NTNU, Michael Muskulus.

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New, exciting technology

- Airborne wind energy is a new and exciting technology, says chief scientist John Olav Giæver Tande.

However, he points out that there are still challenges that need to be addressed.

- Then I think specifically about the transmission of power from the altitude down to the ground. This is an area that the industry needs to do more research on. I do not disregard that airborne wind energy can become a large and exciting niche product in the future. The recent allocation from the EU to Kitemill can be seen as confirmation that experts in the field believe that high wind power can be utilized on a larger scale in the future, says Tande.

Considered many technologies

The Elsevier report considered various technological solutions such as altitude wind power, floating offshore solutions, smart rotors, wind-induced energy harvesting units, blade tip rotors, unconventional power transmission systems, multi-rotor systems, alternative support structures, modular high-voltage DC power generators, innovative blade power generators, innovative blade power generators, innovative blade generators, turbine technologies.

Chief Scientist at the Energy Systems Department at SINTEF, John Olav Giæver Tande

Altitude wind power with several potential benefits

In the assessment of airborne wind energy it was pointed out that this technology has several potential advantages over a traditional wind turbine energy. Airborne wind energy equipment is cheaper to produce (for example, a kite against a wind turbine), it is cheaper to operate, it is faster to deploy, and it can utilize more power from winds in higher layers giving far stronger winds. The use of materials in the production of kites is low in relation to wind turbines. These benefits can be further enhanced by placing them on floating offshore platforms, the report points out.

What remains, however, is a lack of proven reliability, high complexity in solutions, and too little knowledge of how the technology works in full-scale autonomous flight solutions. The conclusion was that altitude wind power needs considerable basic academic research.