Airborne Wind Turbines: The Future of Clean Energy?

[@ZirothTech]

Do you think airborne wind will take off? Thanks to SurfShark for making this video possible. Go to surfshark.com/ziroth for an extra 4 months Surfshark.

[@rasmis]

I've always found the ground-generating wind sails appealing, because they basically do what birds have evolved to master. I am not a physicist, but it seems that birds, by adjusting the angle of attack, are able to go up and down, without adding much energy.

[@janicefoehn]

It's just so dumb

[@rodkeh]

How do the braindead like this twit, ever get their hands on a computer?

[@rodkeh]

Does this fool actually have a living brain cell?

[@joecobra48]

I'm Ryan Innes and I'm in this with you

[@cabanford]

The German Engineer joke: "that's all fine and good in practice... but how does it work in theory?!?" 😂😂😂

[@submersedsword4949]

These airborne wind turbines were in big hero six.

[@borntoclimb7116]

True

[@submersedsword4949]

@@borntoclimb7116 Just testing to see if my keyboard doesn't hate me any more. Let me see if it will let me type poiu.

[@borntoclimb7116]

@@submersedsword4949 okay

[@I_dont_need_a_handle]

It has a couple of issues and not just regulation: 1) 18ct / kWh is roughly 3x more expensive than traditional wind turbines 2) Helium is gradually lost due to diffusion, it is expensive and it is a non-renewable rare ressource (that has to be mined in an actual mine since it is fleeting in earths atmosphere). 3) teathers are a problem. What do you do when there is no wind or turbulent wind? 4) high wear on the teathers due to constant movement and friction in the teather-bearing (plain bearings of traditinal turbines have almost no friction in comparison) 5) higher overall complexity of the system means more points of failure and thus lower service life 6) Windenergy is erratic enough as it is, flying figure-8s and reeling it in every now and then doesn't help here. 7) easy target for terrorism, as everything else that only takes only 1 Bullet to destroy. 8) traditinal wind turbines produce 3MW and upwards and take up less overall airspace -> more power per km². 9) This docking manuver will fail constantly, so more service personal will be neede, wich makes it more expensive. 10) It's a cloth! Traditional windturbines already have massive wear on their wings due to erosion thrue dirt, dust, ice etc... in the air. Those kites wont last a year and the upper ends of the teather better be hella thick. 11) you can't put them near any place where a human is likly to reside or come by. When the kite breaks, the teather will fall down and they don't look harmless to me or better yet: this kite comes off-course and clothes-lines everything is a 800m radius. Just built the damn wind-turbines. they are a good-enough solution as is .make 'em foldable in regions where hurricanes might come by if need be.

[@Dead_Goat]

wind turbines just are not the future. they are just not good, and never were.

[@nikolafischercelanovic4300]

1) It is not fair to compare highly developed technology with a nascent one. 2) Lifting heavy generators in the air makes little sense. That is why the field is converging to VTOL flying wings a.k.a. drones pulling on a ground based generator. 3) The drone lands and the winch brings in the teather. 4) If this is important plain bearings can also be used for teathers. 5) Wind turbines are plenty complex, tons of engineering went into them, and AWE is hardly more complex, only at the lower level of maturity. 6) No need to make figure 8 in the drone design. 7) As are windmills and substations... 8) And need 20x more material to build. 9) Does not apply to drones. 10) Does not apply to drones. 11) Hardly applies to drones.

[@I_dont_need_a_handle]

​@@nikolafischercelanovic4300 1) I'm guessing these 18ct are a generous calculation from the developers, otherwise I wouldn't have brought up this point. 3) ... draging the dorne over rough terrain or through a forrest? plus: how is a drone supposed to land when the wings can't generate lift? Maybe the rotos can create enough lift, don't know, but this is what I mean with "complex" 4) I don't think you got my point here. The teather scapes in all directions on the bearing slipping and sliding over the bearing surface. Plain bearings only roll arround a drive shaft with almost no friction. 5) Needing the same ammount or more sensory, special protocoll, algorithms and AI to controll everything and motor drivers is more complex. 6) but they did in the video. 7) nah dude. You need to bring at least an RPG to make a dent in them. 8) And yet, they are more cost-effective. 10) "to a lesser degree" at best, because it's the rotos bearing the brunt of it. And don't forget: Planes have to get inspected all the time. This is one of the main reasons why. Winturbines can take it, because there is way more material to erode in comparison. 11) Nope. To the same degree, since in both cases, the load and lift is generated passively by an fluctuating force. Unless you want to talk about complexity again. But the one thing I wanna ask you is: Why are you defending this technology so adamant? What problem does it solve? Engineers not having jobs? Maybe those same engineers should work on large-scale infrastructure solutions for Hydrogen storage or upscaling battery- wind- and solar-production. But I guess it's not as sexy as AI-powered drone-gizmos.

[@BeeNTea]

Having different colored and designed kites could make it a nice tourist attraction too. If our energy production can also be an art installation we can inspire people with a more creative side to get into energy production.

[@charlestaylor3195]

That could be a good marketing point also, they could be made the same color as a company's color.

[@inmyopinion6836]

AWWWWWWW! Yeah, when I was a kid in the 60s, the family would go Sundays after lunch to the airport and watch the planes take off and land. I can see this being a great treat!

[@yizhizhu5154]

If you have more than one deployed too close I think the cords are bound to tangle

[@nutshell5494]

Thats a solarpunk art genre main signifier

[@LailandiAdventures]

Now that's some out the box thinking that engineers sometimes need! Good work!

[@JayBenOh]

Congratulations on handing in your thesis! Writing these can be intense and I hope you're happy with the outcome!

[@ZirothTech]

Thank you, it was pretty all consuming at the end, but proud of what I achieved! I'll definitely make a video about it after the viva.

[@SloanMosley]

Since there is no one on board they should use hydrogen for lift. It’s cheaper, renewable and more buoyant.

[@عبدالمجيدععع-ش1ظ]

Yeah and it may catch fire also !!

[@vylbird8014]

@@عبدالمجيدععع-ش1ظ Possibly not that big a problem. The things are airborne - if it goes bang at altitude, not a huge problem. You just need to fit it with a self-destruct system which will rupture the envelope if it falls below a minimum safe altitude.

[@tbuyus8328]

Wonder if natural gas or ammonia might work.

[@troyallen8223]

​@@vylbird8014 A couple pressurized blow out valves or a plasma field to cause an implosion instead of an explosion.

[@vylbird8014]

@@tbuyus8328 No, too heavy. There aren't many gasses that are significently lighter than air. This is why we use the expensive and finite helium or the somewhat explodey hydrogen: There's nothing else that works.

[@JonS]

Congratulations on submitting your Ph.D. thesis! I know what a relief it is to get to that point and past the, "I'm never going to finish this" stage. The bird safety issue with static wind turbines is rather over stated (often by those who advocate for continued fossil fuel burning). The estimate for wind turbine bird deaths in the USA, with 150GW of installed wind capacity, or 9.8% of the country's total power generation, is between 681,000 and 1.4 million. Not small, but compared to the estimated 1 billion birds killed by buildings and the 1.3 to 4 billion killed by cats (again, just in the USA), the number pales in to insignificance. I'd be the first to advocate for action to reduce those wind turbine deaths (for example, painting one blade of a turbine black, to increase visibility, can reduce bird fatalities by more than 70%), but it's really a distraction. If the USA generated ALL of its power using wind turbines and took no action to increase bird safety, it would be responsible for at most 0.6% of the bird deaths in the country. I'm also ignoring that fossil fuel burning is estimated to kill 24 million birds per year.

[@inmyopinion6836]

AND............ what the hell is all this BS about them causing cancer???

[@Hamletbls]

This is very dishonest. Cats and buildings don't kill eagles and the other large birds that wind turbines kill.

[@JonS]

@@Hamletbls dishonest? I wasn’t talking about eagles. I was talking about all birds because the video didn’t mention eagles. He said birds. Did you watch it? If you want to talk about eagles, yes, poorly sited wind turbines with no measures taken (like blade painting) to protect birds, have killed eagles, and the companies responsible have been fined. A lot more eagles are being killed by lead poisoning, electrocution, illegal shooting and habitat destruction.

[@Hamletbls]

@@JonS It is dishonest because you are saying it is insignificant. The birds killed by turbines are not the ones killed by buildings and cats. You know this and you are dishonestly pointing out numbers to make it look like it doesn't matter.

[@JonS]

@@Hamletbls try not to ascribe motivation to people writing on the internet. You have pointed out an honest oversight. Your point is that when it comes to large birds, including the apex predators, the impact of turbine deaths is more significant. Good point, and thank you for making it. I’d like to know what the statistics are however, because wind turbines are not listed among the top three causes of bald eagle and golden eagle deaths. If you have a citation, I’d be happy to learn more.

[@inmyopinion6836]

Thanks for the update. The ground-based wind generator was an Idea I came up with in the 80s while working for Solaron Inc. in Denver, Co. The autonomous system issues were the non-starter. We KNEW it would work, but like auto tracking solar panels, the funding has been fought tooth and nail by the BIG OIL corps.

[@WolfeSaber]

Didn't this pop up in Big Hero 6?

[@seanhoude]

Sure did! Came here to make the same comment. 👍

[@Dablinds]

@@seanhoudesame

[@1_______0766]

Ya

[@Shady_Guyy]

​@@seanhoude lol me too

[@pkkiller_apathy4568]

Lol just did then saw this

[@shintsu01]

about the birds reduce the cat population by 0.1 % and it will avoid less bird losses then all wind based energy systems currently available

[@melusine826]

Exactly, car strikes, cats/ foxes etc are way more dangerous

[@ConstantChaos1]

People need to stop letting cats free roam

[@Coco-hq6ns]

@@ConstantChaos1 cats are an invasive species change my mind.

[@marcopohl4875]

Don't you mean more?

[@wadexyz]

most studies on cats and bird populations are bad science making inane extrapolations (as you have done here). people draw the conclusions they want, and make the data fit their bias.

[@null-u7e]

I'm pretty sure it's because helium is impossible to contain, so it's requiring bouyancy to keep it flying was the issue. there's no way you can keep the helium from escaping. It'll literally leak out of a solid metal pressure vessel though the metal walls.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

Like someone else commented. Hydrogen is the way to go. Not helium. Helium is basically a finite resource. We should save it.

[@Critical-Thinker895]

@@dianapennepacker6854 That's exactly what they said about the Hindenburg.

[@malachiteofmethuselah9713]

​@@Critical-Thinker895Thermite.

[@nomms]

The Hindenburg was massive and carried people, along with running ICE engines. A balloon igniting at altitude isn't as big of a deal and is less likely with this application.

[@user-McGiver]

@@nomms tell that to the forest below... and in a windy day...

[@dosgos]

Modern kite designs are efficient and capture powerful, smooth air from higher altitudes. Launching and tweaking the kite's figure 8's optimally requires visual and hand sense, plus a sense of what the wind is doing. Wind velocity and direction changes, so different kite sizes are used in kitesurfing for optimal performance. Errant gusts would be tough for computers to deal with IMHO but they are less common once a few meters above the water. One needs a big radius to cover all the wind directions and protect from kites crashing to the ground. The kite and cables wear out from variable tension, vibrations, salt, silt, UV light, pollution, etc.

[@wizzwas]

On the Aerostats. I used to work with them a bit and we eventually stopped using them because the price of helium had gone up so much it just wasn't profitable for our application anymore. I bet that had a part to play in the ones you mentioned. As well as taking a 4 man crew to launch and dock it, someone had to monitor it at all times because it wasn't rated to fly in high wind speeds. Scary as hell landing one when its windy!

[@christophvonwaldhuf]

Why not use hydrogen?

[@wizzwas]

@@christophvonwaldhuf Google 'Hindenburg'😬

[@wizzwas]

@@christophvonwaldhuf Google 'Hindenburg'😬

[@GruffSillyGoat]

@@christophvonwaldhuf - hard to contain (diffuses through most lightweight materials), is a green house effect multiplier, only offers 8% higher lifting capacity than helium, requires extensive safety measures to prevent/surpress ignition, and hydrogen is energy intensive to generate.

[@neinherman9989]

I suppose a hot air balloon solution isn't viable? Like an electric heater within using some of the energy generated to operate.

[@winfriedtheis5767]

Congratulations with submitting your thesis!🎉 Great video! As you point out at the end, many things were deemed impossible, turned out to be possible, and in this case these companies have already proven that the principle is feasible. I would see these as another piece in the puzzle.

[@colsylvester639]

Congratulations making your thesis submission! All the best!

[@bc-guy852]

Congratulations on starting your PHD! Your channel produces great content - you're going to do great!!

[@ZirothTech]

Thank you, exciting times ahead!

[@BloomToEarth]

This is the first video of yours I’ve seen and I loved it. Definitely going to check out your other videos

[@TheAnimeHall]

"There were lots of designs FLOATING around"... I see what you did there.

[@athena1491]

On the topic of birds killed by wind turbines.... the number is so low even with standard wind turbines, to the point that glass windows kill more birds a year than turbines, and coal and other pollutants even more than that, its really almost a non issue thats being used as a roadblock by oil companies

[@GhostofJamesMadison]

The obnoxiously absurd heights energy companies go to inorder to not just use nearly free, cheap, and easy nuclear energy never ceases to amaze me lol

[@ForbiddenFollyFollower]

Some would say the buoercracy is the problem.

[@0005yuki]

Oh the quality improved drastically in this video - cheeky from u Ryan

[@brodyalden]

Really interesting. Thank you, Ryan!

[@RobleViejo]

9:24 Seven f-ing years to develop a Control Software when the obvious answer was right there: A Human Operator. Flying kites is a fun activity anyways, flying one all day, learning the winds in the area, would be a rewarding and even relaxing activity

[@gregroth4696]

Beautifully Done. No need to hang in there and wait. You start inventing! I liked the lighter than air blimp with the internal turbine.. Vast potential and simplicity. What's not to like? Peace out and Thanks again!

[@vulgaris1251]

Lot's of people bring up the bird thing without realizing skyscrapers is the one man made structure that kills the most birds

[@ChessMasterNate]

I came up with this idea independently in the late 1980s. I had 2 designs. One was like that airplane and flew figure 8s. The other also generated the energy in the air, but was more like a helicopter with counter rotating blades.

[@Rkcuddles]

Congrats on your phd thesis submission. Good luck.

[@MIA_DaDe]

Congrats on the Phd thesis submission ... whew! Weight of the shoulders for sure! Regarding this video, airborne wind turbines seem like an exercise in frustration for its developers though I wish them well. That said, I wonder if wave or tidal energy systems might be a quicker path to more reliable/economical electricity generation. Thanks for covering this topic and thanks for the wind turbines in your background shot. Nice touch! lol

[@ZirothTech]

Thank you, I'm excited top get out 'in the wild' more often! I have a few tidal projects I want to cover soon too, I think it's an awesome sector.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

I see these as an amazing solution for. 1) Military. 2) Survival/Remote places. 3) Emeregency workers after a disaster. Being able to produce energy for cheaper in some remote location seems great. Lots of barren places on earth with free sky above! For infrastructure purposes? I sort of doubt it unless these get incredibly big, or fly higher. I mean the whole advantage is to take advantage of high altitude winds right? Yet none of em seem to do it. Nor do generators of any sort seem to be able to handle those high turbulent winds! So even if they could get higher. Could they actually take advantage of it? Dunno. Tidal also has a long way to go. The issue there is simply the cost of installing then more importantly maintaining. The ocean is brutal on equipment. Now that pervoskites and batteries are coming online. Going to be tough for some of the other technologies to get cheap enough to compete. I do hope millimeter wave drilling takes off along with those enclosed loop systems so we aren't spreading toxic shyte already in the ground into the water table.

[@MIA_DaDe]

@@dianapennepacker6854 Yeah.. I get that (I'm certainly not a subject matter expert lol). Whereas for more 'mainstream' alternative energy I was curious about tidal/wave energy other, etc., airborne wind seems it may pose as a solution for very unique remote solutions.

[@El-Burro-Grande]

Seems like an inflatable, airborne wind turbine could be a great, portable option for generating power for temporary or mobile installations as a supplement to solar.

[@jacka9612]

When you covered wind kites that produce electricity, the natural next thing would be to cover Minesto tidal kites that produce electricity cost effectively because of them beeng very lite and small (12m, 28 tonnes, 1,2MW) and able to operate in slow currents which other tidal turbines can't.

[@incognito253]

A couple ideas regarding this: it seems ideal for near offshore winds that are less visibly disruptive (and may even look nice). Secondly these kites will have small 'spot' shadows compared to the large shadows of turbine blades and therefore along with their suitability for building on rough terrain where solar farms can also be built, this seems like a good way to harvest more energy from the same land area while producing little to no shading on solar panels. I also thought of another idea: building these booms on top of bladed wind turbines to take advantage of even higher winds or get access to better winds with even less startup speed required. Obviously you would need to construct your kite and cable in such a way that it can never hit the turbine blades. But it seems like starting off with a 300m advantage from a turbine mast designed to support a nacelle and blades magnitudes heavier than these systems would let you potentially get at the energy more cheaply.

[@TheIslandRiders]

actual ad after your in video ad is diabolical.

[@loiskimberleyplayer]

Congrats on the thesis!! Super cool video and promising technology (though the tangled windfarms sound like a nightmare!)

[@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt]

Not to mix metaphors here, but bird deaths by wind energy is a red herring. Studies have proved that between 681,000 and 1.17 million bords ate killed by wind energy annually in the US. Compare that to between 89 million and 340 million bird deaths by vehicle collision, and 2.4 billion bird deaths by domestic cats for a proper perspective.

[@FreedomTalkMedia]

The issue with bird deaths and wind turbines is that it is concentrated in large breed birds that are not as plentiful as those killed by cats and by cars. Birds of prey, owls, stuff like that.

[@FreedomTalkMedia]

It's also worth noting that there are 200 million cars driving around and the electrical grid hasn't been fully deployed yet in wind. It's not a nun issue.

[@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt]

@@FreedomTalkMedia I beg to differ. Bird deaths by wind turbines is literally a rounding error, less than 0.05%. You're not going to put spinning blades in the air and not have birds strike them! It's just not going to happen. Do you have any idea how many birds are killed in the US every year by striking building? How about over a billion! Again, comparing that to the upper range of turbine strike fatalities, that's just 1.17% of birds killed by building strikes. So, do we do anything to mitigate bird deaths by domestic cats? No. Vehicles? No. Building? No. Then why should wind turbines be the exception? They shouldn't.

[@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt]

@@FreedomTalkMedia Your claims are simply not supported by evidence.

[@FreedomTalkMedia]

@@ARepublicIfYouCanKeepIt Your comment doesn't address what I said, whatsoever .

[@johnlord8337]

The "O" flying air craft is the most-reasonable situation as the wings fly the craft, while the fan inside the turbine, like an aircraft jet turbine, is able to spin at enormous wind velocities (at higher elevations).

[@rogerphelps9939]

That rather restricts the swept area which is bad.

[@johnlord8337]

@@rogerphelps9939 Many of the other tethered airfoil wing designs with the scaffolded wind turbine below the wings is not proper, and removes the aerodynamic lift under the wing of the craft itself.

[@toml6505]

I have an idea for an electric flying glider that charges its batteries while in the air when in excess lift/thermals, and or on the ground in sufficiently strong winds! Similar to airborne wind turbines but just has to make enough power for itself to remain airborne with its dual purpose motors/generators.

[@avijit849]

maybe instead of space elevators , carbon nanotubes would be used to build the tether for one of these instead.

[@Scissors69]

Dont think the tether was mentioned as a problem

[@avijit849]

@@Scissors69 for stormy places

[@AllenKnutson]

@@Scissors69 There was a brief mention of a tether being as strong as, but 1/7th the weight of, steel. Kevlar perhaps. Probably if one had a yet lighter tether one could go higher, which is apparently always better (modulo regulatory issues).

[@ecogreen123]

why not both?

[@avijit849]

@@ecogreen123 it could be both but the space elevator stuff doesn't seem to be materialising anytime soon. looks like we'll get something like this first.

[@HaukeLaging]

The regulatory challanges (whatever they may be in detail) are obviously orders os magnitude smaller than with wind turbines in the ground. In Germany there are few locations left where you could (legally) put up a wind turbine because house owners do not want them in their vicinity. Then there is the problem that they kill a lot of birds. So if there are rare, protected birds in an area, that's the end of all plans to put a wind turbine on the ground there. Both problems disappear with airborne wind energy. The next problem is that the good locations (a lot of strong wind) were used first, obviously. So each new (not: replacement) wind turbine is worse than those before. The main challange of the transition to renewable energy is to always have enough energy available. Those who can offer that to a smaller extent will be paid less. A very important advantage of the airborne wind power is that the winds are not only stronger at higher altitudes, they are more reliable, too. In the future most of the solar power will go to some kind of storage (additional cost, less efficient). The airborne wind power can "always" be sold directly and at higher prices. While I am writing this, an interesting question comes to my mind: How close to each other can airborne power elements be put? On the ground you need quite some distance between them due to the effect they have on the wind behind them. But the kites are so small and can fly at different hights that it mighte be possible to let them fly quite close. Making sure they fly in parallel should not be that difficult. And maybe they could even be mechanically connected on the ground so that less generators are needed. That may be something worth talking to the macufacturers about.

[@pauljs75]

Some variants have been proven well enough for over a decade even (some of the flying wing or gyrocopters work quite well and are reliable enough to implement), but the main issue is bureaucratic and regulatory. Basically it's hard to get an airspace restriction put in place that isn't temporary due to the flight hazard such systems would pose to any aircraft.

[@mickmiah7605]

Congratz on the PhD submission. It is a great channel bud. Ty.

[@kaibroeking9968]

All these solutions are still subject to Betz's law: Not more than 16/27 of the wind energy passing through the crossection of the acuator (be it a kite, or a small floating turbine mount) can ever be harnessed, for reasons based in fundamental physics of gas flows. In a nutshell: if you have to increase the crossection, then the kites might be scalable, whereas Helium-filled blimps or airfoils with rows of smallish rotors attached to them will likely not be.

[@rogerphelps9939]

These airborne systems appear to have rather small swept areas when compared with big ground based turbines. In order to compensate for lack of area you need a much greater wind speed. fortunately a doubling of wind speed compensates for a factor of 8 reduction in the swept area so the maths might actually be in favour of large aerial systems.

[@solarpunkstories]

A really fascinating video that could help inform the background to one of our stories

[@dosgos]

French brothers Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux invented the efficient kite design in the 1980s. Great potential for niche applications.

[@marmaladearmadillo]

Congrats! Been a joy to watch this channel grow and I can't imagine accomplishing what you have academically on top of it all. Bravo. To many more years!

[@ZirothTech]

Thank you! Exciting times ahead :D

[@StealthTheUnknown]

I’m curious where these people get the energy from. Just doing basic chores and obligations takes it out of me. School and creating material and everything else on top? Unreal

[@animistchannel]

Oooh, congratulations on submitting your thesis! May your defence be mighty, and your challengers too short of sleep to make a strong resistance :)

[@jonjimihendrix]

Cool idea, but I do see a problem. Obviously, we would need fields of these. In order to avoid tangling two tethers together, they would have to be spaced twice the tethers length apart. At 800m, that’s 1.6km between towers. Meanwhile, that space below its entire circumference must be kept clear and basically unused. Maybe offshore, from a drone boat or something?

[@s.s.j5046]

Nice to see the Vestas Turbine, im working for the company, and been putting up the one you showed, as well as others. Many more will come during 2025 and onwards ! Great video though interesting to see alternatives.

[@JonathanFrost]

My understanding is that any cowling deceases the flow through the turbine when mounted in free space. Many models incorrectly impose boundary conditions that are more appropriate for a turbine in a cowling in a tube.

[@cabanford]

What exactly is the material in the tether? Me guessing that there's a materials/cost limit that's nixing these startups

[@thekinginyellow1744]

I'm glad you addressed the legal challenge. I expect that this will be far and away the largest obstacle to deployment.

[@Vishnu6]

Congratulations on submitting your thesis!!’

[@HarryZev]

This generator on the ground system seems terrific. I never heard of it before your video. Enough to make me be a subscriber

[@lionelwhiskerknot]

I'm still waiting on Mr. Fusion that is powered by garbage and table scraps.

[@speedracer123222]

Not Big Hero 6 becoming more of a reality by having flying wind turbines.

[@Dave_1966]

Congratulations on the Phd submission 👍😊 hope to see more fascinating content soon 😊

[@Scubongo]

I really love your channel. You're a smart kid, making the right videos.

[@buffalopilot8224]

Congrats Dr. Ziroth!

[@ahsimiksnabac6576]

WICKID!! well done mate, fascinating stuff, will keep in touch. here's something to ponder, extracting energy from the movement of tectonic plates. spk zoon.

[@pinkzomo]

The general advantages of the ground-gen kite generators are that you (a) don't need a heavy foundation of concrete, (b) no big tower and (c) the generator is on the ground for maintenance. But the enormous potential of these systems is the fact that they can simply be delivered by truck, placed on the ground, and are ready to work and if conditions are bad, they can be put somewhere else or be sold. Small and medium enterprises can therefore just order them and set them up -- with a far lower risk of failure as "failure" just means resell. It's almost plug-and-play. This is a quantum leap compared to classical wind turbines. There are one million fracking sides in the US alone, so why not 10 million kites ...

[@pfoe]

This is of the same quality as The B1M. I'm loving this new look.

[@whoguy4231]

Wind power has stuff all energy because of the area square rule. You need a massive surface area for any reasonable energy generation. Solar stomps wind energy per metre square.

[@sparaz]

Problem is that solar panels require a cap load of carbon, including oil/petroleum products. They have a life cycle limit and tend to be very low on the recycability index so contribute to waste and c02csimilar to the unrecycable wind turbine blades that need to be replaced. I liked the "potential" of a lot of these ideas because they didn't have the short falls that solar panels and wind turbines have (neither of which are close to pure green energy or carbon neutral solutions). But these aren't solutions either

[@chadleach6009]

I can see them working in some areas. As a native floridan who just went through a second hurricane, I'd say tropical places prone to such weather are not it's market.

[@emanggitulah4319]

Seems overly complicated for what it tries to achieve. Not even having a constant energy transformation as wind turbines. In my opinion it's all a bit of a wet startup inventor dream, like the HYPELOOP

[@karllindberg]

You should cover Minesto - and read up on their story.

[@pomodorino1766]

Thanks for the update!

[@mescey5059]

Well done completing your drudge through the pit of self doubt of writing your thesis

[@GhostofJamesMadison]

Scientists: "sir nuclear energy plants no longer go critical and there is enough thorium t power the earth until the sun goes out" Politicians: "release the kites!"

[@gregcollins3404]

My idea is to use a spring loaded ratchet mechanism with a flywheel on the ground based generator to pulse the tether. Similar to how a rowing exerciser works. Makes the kite very simple as it doesn't have to fly around in figure eights etc. Just stays up in the air and repetitively yanks on the tether....

[@christophvonwaldhuf]

how does it yank on the tether? What design you have in mind? Wing ? What about spring force being different at different heights?

[@gregcollins3404]

To optimize the function, the spring action would need to be dynamically adjustable, and the kite needs to pulse its pull to resonate with the ratchet spring ...

[@177grego]

As a sport kite flyer I can say definitely that figure eights provide much more pull and are inherently stable

[@JD-ub5ic]

As an engineer that works in the power sector I see 2 major issues. One, density. Those kites look like they need A LOT of space between each unit, how much land are these going to take? Wind and solar already take an enormous amount of land compared to nuclear power for example, and a bigger footprint means less trees, less biodiversity, and also less land for people, agriculture, etc. If the goal is green energy I still have a hard time hitting the "I believe" button when step one is clearing tens of thousands of acres of natural spaces. Second is maintenance and safety. The kites would be the preferred solution for this I think, how on earth do you safely perform maintenance on those flying generators? High voltage tethers waving in the wind seems pretty sketchy, and then to perform maintenance you'd have to land this giant flying generator and then how does the technician reach anything to service it? The one advantage is it would put the tech on the ground instead of in 200 feet in the air for maintenance, but it still seems overall pretty difficult, and how long does it extend even simple maintenance tasks if you have to land and then relaunch the thing? Seems to me launching a generator into the air every time it needs maintenance wouldn't be trivial from an energy or time perspective.

[@pieman2656]

Firstly congratulations on submitting thesis and free time. Secondly awesome video and concept Just wondering could they consider using a tube which is shrouded in Kevlar or something with high tensile strength, this can then be used to supply gas to lift and deflate or slowly pump up water to act as ballast to make sail heavier and come down. Even if it had two lite weight tubes one higher in foil the other lower so the lower one for buoyant gas the higher one for denser air, when you need to lower it switch valve so the heavier air coming in at the bottom will displace lite gas which is removed by displacement back down the tube into a reservoir this will represent the cyclic lift and lower of foil. As for water yes I know there would be issues using public supply because the height local pressure wouldn't e high enough but a little pump connected to solar should do it whether it's air or water being pumped they are both fluids. Take care m8, keep being awesome, from some random Kiwi in New Zealand "Kia Kaha" - "Stay Strong".

[@laylal4964]

You really blew me away here!

[@PetesShredder]

Hey, great to meet you yesterday at fully charged. Best of luck with everything.

[@ZirothTech]

Was great to catch up Pete!

[@PetesShredder]

@@ZirothTech how was the test drive? If you're ever passing this area again let's go for a beer and talk about nurd shit.

[@langohr9613ify]

The big question for these systems is, if they will ever be able to catch up to traditional wind and solar. Ot would be huge, because of the great potential of energy generation. The reliability at a 24/7 operation for several years seems really to be the hard part.

[@shaunkaufmann6091]

Just a heads up, you missed one crucial aspect of these approaches: they significantly increase the projected area that the kites can sweep out relative to their size (ignoring the balloon one of course). also there is a tidal version of this.

[@44Hd22]

4:10 What if you just put solar panels somewhere high? Or just on the moon? The moon solar panel idea would probably only help space missions.

[@nayber2352]

Because maintenance would be a nightmare and transferring the power that far would have losses

[@beast2120]

Congrats on the thesis!

[@paramotorportal]

The sheer number of accidents this will cause with general aviation makes it an idea I'd be very much against!!

[@Pastronomer69]

What sort of altitude are you flying at?! Do you not have charts with danger areas or restricted airspace?

[@StealthTheUnknown]

Is my man flying NOE all the time or something??

[@ecogreen123]

better yet compare it too how many aviation accidents there are in general and im surprised your not against aviation entirely, or cars don't even get me started on cars lol.

[@geekmechanic1473]

​@@Pastronomer69plenty of aircraft fly between 500 and 1000ft

[@cheedu100]

Congratulations on submitting your phd thesis!

[@ZirothTech]

Thank you!

[@davidmoorman731]

A design uses the cable rotating to the ground or tower support to transfer energy from the helium filed turbine to the generator. Everything non metallic and non conducting. Easy to recover before high potentially damaging winds.

[@nekobasu99]

Seeing one after another renewable technology research die on arrival because of commercial viability really worries me. It makes me wonder if we are missing out on major innovation because of investor's natutal risk aversion. Are we too focused on measuring profitability as a means to judge new research instead of its objective improvement on established tech?

[@classicmax794]

ideally these should be publicly funded projects run by non-profit or governmental organizations, because the stakeholders are the entire population of the planet, not just the shareholders of a startup. then these projects wouldn't be abandoned, because the point would no longer be short-term profit, but rather long-term social benefit.

[@nekobasu99]

@@classicmax794 Beautifully put, I agree completely. These engineers and businessmen ARE to focused designing for monetary profit when the need for clean energy has become way more important than that. I think we will see real progress when we learn that climate change is not merely an engineering problem, but a political one.

[@soviut303]

One way to keep kite farms from tangling is to do the retraction in a wave so that kites that are nearest always have one that is retracting and another that is unfurling.

[@corvanphoenix]

I've been using wind traps on Arrakis for ages.

[@INVAZOR33]

Don't those worms generate unlimited power

[@troyallen8223]

​@@INVAZOR33 😅😅😅

[@ASmithee67]

Anyone who has flown kites recognize gusts and wind shifts in only a few feet feet causes the kite to shift, swing, and eventually fall. Even if you get a kite "stable" with a tail, it is never stable day after day, week after week. Eventually the wind gusts, and shift in wind in level, e.g. 20 ft to 40 ft, 40 ft to 60 feet, all effect the kite. You've launching a wind turbine "kite".

[@Future-Wolf]

Congratulation to your Phd submission !

[@r0sco]

congrats all getting through the phd! is your defense finished, or did you have to do that pre-submission?

[@AllenKnutson]

Congratulations on the thesis submission! What's the title?

[@ZirothTech]

Thank you! It is titled 'Real-Time Thermal Modelling of Electric Machines Using Machine Learning' - Video to come when I have completed my viva :D

[@bellytripper-nh8ox]

​@@ZirothTech WHATHELL IS A **VIVA**??

[@SaltyPuglord]

@@bellytripper-nh8ox In the USA we call it a "thesis defense." It's where he has to explain his research to a committee of people with expertise in the subject matter, present the evidence and the work he's done, and defend the truth of his findings.

[@iancowan3527]

A gentleman was making a faster sailboat... And that turned into his first kite generator! He's still developing them...

[@MarcSilver-g5j]

For power generation during kite deployment a two kite system would be better. One cable with a kite on either end of the cable. Power is generated when Kite # 1 is deployed. Then a regulator restricts the expansion of Kite #1. Kite #2 now, fully expanded deploys which generates powers while pulling in the restricted Kite #1. Once deployed Kite #2 is restricted and the process is repeated over and over. Energy is generated continuously and not expended to retrieve a kite.

[@PeanutsDadForever]

Very, interesting! Fingers crossed

[@Yaxoi]

Congrats on submitting your PhD!

[@andornot4988]

I'm upset you didn't mention KiteGen, in my opinion one of the best company to explore such a technology

[@SolidSteakPrime]

Any update on power generation for the kites?

[@hoagy_ytfc]

One of my favourite ever episodes in the sadly-missed omegataupodcast was on this subject. Note sure if I'm allowed to link to it here, but it's in their online archive, episode 98

[@johnransom1146]

What is your phd in?

[@ZirothTech]

It was using statistical models to predict the temperature of electric machines during operation - video to follow in the next few months!

[@macrumpton]

The more I look into wind energy the better solar looks. So much complexity, moving parts, and huge variability in wind strength make this an almost impossible goal.

[@cdeeze]

Great video! Thanks for sharing. One of my pet peeves though are statements like x-times lighter/smaller/shorter/etc. At least to me, 7 times lighter means x-7x (or -6x), not x/7 as I assume is what you meant. I'd very much prefer "but at a seventh of the weight." Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest, I'm weird like this. lol 😅 Whether or not this will work remains to be seen, but I believe effortslike this and other green power generation and storage is needed if our species is going to survive the next millennia, if not century.

[@oszi7058]

yes wind turbines easily could rival the efficiency of airbone wind turbines because you cant have a big turbine flying but you can increase the radius of ground wind turbines and if you double the radius enegery output is quadrupeled

[@Scissors69]

You could just quadruple the area of the kite then?

[@ecogreen123]

you could also just quadruple the Hight of the kite for probably the same price.

[@thewatersavior]

Just want to know how they handle when there is a launch or landing failure on these kites

[@matthewbaynham6286]

Insteed of having a small super efficient turbine flying on a kite, it makes a lot more sense to just use the money to build a bigger more traditional wind turbine. And when it comes to money and renewables, the land is this most expensive thing, so if your kite requires more land then its more expensive. As for that island which can't have wind turbines because too many storms, they should invest in wave power.