By Corwin Hardham, Makani Power, USA
The Makani airborne wind turbine (AWT) is a new way of harvesting wind energy. A conventional horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) generates the majority of its power output using the outboard third of the blade, due to its high speed and large swept area. Makani’s AWT systems use tethered, rigid wings with wing-mounted turbines to fly circular paths similar to the path of the tip of a HAWT blade, at comparable speeds but greater altitudes. Because the entire wing is flying at an aerodynamically active speed, the wing need only be as large as a single blade of a HAWT of the same power rating.
