by ROCKMAN » Fri 04 Nov 2016, 16:43:04
"Seriously, theres probably not time to build them to save industrial civiliazation etc.". There is no plan to "save industrial civilization"...never has been and never will be. Each potential project will stand on its own economic merit. If the project below does payout in two years as claimed there will be thousands of other projects following quickly. With lower energy cost today such projects will cost less they would have at anytime over the last 8 to 10 years:
In June 2006 the Kitegen had been selected to receive public financing from the Italian Ministry for Economic Development. Although the project received a "priority B" score the procedure evaluation was not carried out because of lack of funds. Economic capital, performance evaluation, and capital adequacy is proceeding from evaluator agency (Sanpaolo-Intesa Bank). Under the 7th Framework Program of the European Union, an elaboration of the project within the transport sector was rated "excellent" and received funding of €3 million for the realization of solutions based on wing profiles for the generation of electricity aboard ships, traction and management of ancillary services (proposal No. 218,691; acronym: "KitVes"). In November 2008, European Union informed that provision of funds will start "soon".
In August 2006 a prototype of the KiteGen named mobilegen was first tested. This truck mounted system is mobile and uses low-altitude wind. A mobile generator of second generation was tested in September 2007 at Francesco Cappa airport located in Casale Monferrato (Province of Alessandria, Italy). The unit called KSU1 used a kite that flew to 800 meters with automatic controls. The experiments lasted three days and required special permits from civil and military aviation.
Aluminium smelter: In September 2012 KiteGen sent an offer to Italian Government to relieve the aluminium smelter in Portovesme from ALCOA and run it with his wind capturing technologies. Actually the plant is the biggest energy user in Italy with 2.3 Twh/year, so KiteGen think that a farm of 200 generators in only 1 square kilometer near the plant would be able to draw 300 MW of power with a year availability of 5000 hours. All expenses for construction can be write off in nearly 2 years with energy costs around 30 €/Mwh. For comparison Glencore offer for the smelter want to relieve it only if the energy costs can drop to 37 €/Mwh by state aids because high power costs of nearby Sulcis Coal Power Station (around 70 €/Mwh) are the main reason for ALCOA to leave Sardinia.
An if this pilot project proves to be a total economic failure we can probably stop talking about kite power for a long time. And airplane problems? There are already thousands of no-fly zones scattered across the US.