5 ms·
Launch costs. Kites work well enough when the wind is blowing but a lull, or even a quick change in direction, can see them crash to the ground. Then someone
by sandworm101 5y ago
Launch costs. Kites work well enough when the wind is blowing but a lull, or even a quick change in direction, can see them crash to the ground. Then someone has to launch them again. I cannot see them ever being practical outside of those very rare places where the wind literally never stops.
- Grustaf 5y agoKites like Makani's are autonomous, and that's really one of the harder aspects to get to work.
- wmertens 5y agoMakani's kite is steered. This one just needs to stay aloft. Launching it is just a matter of a wind-up spool on a windvane-like small rotating platform (no more than a few m high)
- Grustaf 5y agoI know how it works, what are you arguing for or against?
- mainpeanut 5y agoYou wrote > Kites like Makani's are autonomous They wrote > Makani's kite is steered. This one just needs to stay aloft The implication is that you are suggesting that autonomous steering is neat and the other person is suggesting that not needing steering is neater. Also, Makani was steered into the ground literally and figuratively. It's been cancelled. It will never do what it said it could do because its creators won't keep doing it. It's over.
- Grustaf 5y agoNo, I just meant what I wrote. I'm simply agreeing with the guy that said that launching is expensive. It's indeed the hardest part for any kite energy system, I know this from experience, I spent several years in this industry. If you could live with having to launch and land the system manually, that would change the equation completely.
- mainpeanut 5y ago> Kites like Makani's are autonomous The are also cancelled, gone, don't exist, will never happen