FLYING KITES DELIVER CONTAINER-SIZE POWER GENERATION

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Airborne wind energy is a new field that uses kites instead of turbines to generate energy from wind. Kites are nimbler than turbines and can deliver a more constant energy supply. Netherlands-based company Kitepower has developed a system called Hawk that flies out in 'pumping' cycles - it flies out while pulling at a tether, generating electricity on the ground, and when the tether reaches its maximum length, the ground station winches the kite back in, using only a fraction of the energy it produced. The system fits into a standard shipping container and assembly at a new site takes less than 24 hours.