Comments on: Airborne Wind Turbine Could Revolutionize Wind Power

By: Google Buys Makani Wind Power (Kite Power Company) | CleanTechnica

Google Buys Makani Wind Power (Kite Power Company) | CleanTechnica — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:45:20 +0000

[…] airborne turbine only uses a carbon-fiber wing and lightweight rotors of their own creation,” Silvio wrote back in 2011. “The company says its 1-megawatt airborne turbine system will weigh a tenth as much and have […]

By: m c

m c — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:50:00 +0000

Problem is Americans never read history, we have become a nation of academics and fantisy writers where where history or solid engineering means nothing to the DOE, if it sounds good throw money at it, follow the yellow brick road to Alice in wonderland and the mad hatter to waste all our time and tax payers money. Hears a little history you flunkies may have missed.
1) ben franklin in the 1600 knew if you attached metal to a kite it attracts lightning strikes 2) in WW2 england had barrarge baloons attached by cable to bring down german bombers that would be distroyed on contact with the cable. ( I can see a lot of planes falling from the skys with this lunatic idea)

By: Explaining ARPA-E & “Inventing the Future” - CleanTechnica

Explaining ARPA-E & “Inventing the Future” - CleanTechnica — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:08:25 +0000

[…] you can see, the video features Arun Majumdar, director of ARPA-E; wind energy startup Makani power; and a seaweed (kelp) to fuel project from the Bio Architecture Lab (BAL). Of course, there are […]

By: Hynerian

Hynerian — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:33:00 +0000

AWE hasn’t really proven itself yet, compared to electric vehicles and solar power. There was a surge of innovation in the 1970s because of the oil crises, but then it dropped off the map, much more so than other renewables. I’m not asking you to trust my reasoning or anything like that.. my first post was about encouraging people to educate themselves even just a little bit about all the technological challenges and different approaches to AWE. Next, I provided a very short summary of some opinions on the AWE discussion forum. I’m not a maker or engineer myself, just like to follow what’s cooking in the field of renewables.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:00:00 +0000

I don’t find your logic convincing. If it fails, it fails. Lots of new technology stumbles while taking its baby steps. Google picked a winner with Tesla but their NanoSolar investment hasn’t been a big win.

If someone else comes up with a better idea they’ll get funding. Google is not the only group with money for startups.

By: Hynerian

Hynerian — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:10:00 +0000

Makani’s design is likely to fail and because it is such a highly publicized case (funded by Google), its failure might scare investors. There is a lot of innovation going on in the AWE scene and it would be cool to see funds distributed a bit more evenly.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:33:00 +0000

I looked at a couple of pages. Lot of noise and not much signal.

If you’ve been following the conversation perhaps you could put together a summary. I don’t think most people are going to wade through all that.

By: Hynerian

Hynerian — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:57:00 +0000

Please read this discussion group for level-headed analysis of Makani: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AirborneWindEnergy/messages

By: Matthew Peffly

Matthew Peffly — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:38:00 +0000

There are a bunch of videos of similar approaches on the web. My fav keep the generator on the ground so is even lighter. Keep hoping someone moves past the early prototype stage.