1. Wind Power From Kites Professor David J. Olinger
Mechanical Engineering Dept.
WPI
WPI's Fifth US-Africa Business Conference

2. WPI KITE POWER TEAM Professor David J. Olinger
Dr. Jitendra Goela, Rohm and Haas Company, Woburn MA
Gabe Baldwin, Mike Blouin, Peter Bertoli, Ryan Buckley, Chris Colschen, Mike DeCuir, Max Hurgin, Ben Isabella, Taylor LaLonde, Erik Lovejoy, Josh Rodden, Mike Sangermano, Nick Simone, Nick Urko

3. Motivation & Goals
Increased access to electricity, water, power in developing nations must be provided in a sustainable way using renewable energy sources, such as wind power
Develop a new renewable energy technology: Wind Power from Kites
Build prototype capable of generating ~1KW
Slide Notes:
1 KW enough to power most modern appliances (average US home uses 1.5 KW)
Cost: 1 KW wind turbine generator costs about $10,000 to build. Also very complex as opposed to relatively simple design of kite power conversion mechanism
Efficiency: Wind turbines only useful in Class 3 wind zones (avg. wind speed > 14mph), only ~10% of developing world. Kites can be efficient in Class 2 wind zones since they can go higher than turbines where wind speeds are greater. This allows much more of the world to benefit.
Environmental Issues: Visual – turbines are big and dumb looking, kites are small and unnoticeable. Sound – turbines are loud (~ dB for small turbines), kites are quiet and mechanism is close to ground so sound doesn’t travel as far. Birds – 33,000 birds killed by turbines every year in US, kites haven’t killed any birds that we know of.

4. Wind Power from Kites Prototype
Converts up-and-down motion of kite
into electricity that is stored in batteries

5. Animation - System Operation
Wind is from
Left to Right
Olinger, D.J. & Goela, J.S. , “Performance Characteristics of a one-kilowatt scale kite power system, ASME Paper ES , Energy Sustainability 2008, Jacksonville, FL August 2008.

6. Advantages of Kite Power for Developing Nations
Potentially cheaper than a wind turbine
More economical in low wind speed regions
Higher wind speeds at higher altitudes
Kites can fly “faster than the wind” – apparent velocity effect
More aesthetically pleasing &
environmentally friendly than wind turbines

7. Advantages for Developing Nations
Wind Turbines
Kites
$ 12,000
Est. $6,000
Visual Pollution
Noise Pollution
Can Kill Birds
Practically Invisible
Effectively Silent
Less Likely to Kill Birds
Limited to heights of ~100 feet
Can fly at ~ 500 feet
Greater height = Higher Wind Speeds = More Available Power
500 feet vs. 100 feet = 2X POWER!
Wind Turbines
Kites
$ 12,000
Est. $6,000
Visual Pollution
Noise Pollution
Can Kill Birds
Practically Invisible
Effectively Silent
Less Likely to Kill Birds
Limited to heights of ~100 feet
Can fly at ~ 500 feet
Greater height = Higher Wind Speeds = More Available Power
500 feet vs. 100 feet = 2X POWER!

8. Field Testing WPI KITE POWER TEAM STUDENTS
Heifer International’s Overlook Farm – Rutland, MA
Seabrook, NH beaches

9. Wiki – WPI Kite Power Team
Link in agenda on conference website
Other kite power researchers:
WindLift, LLC
Makani Power, Inc Jet stream winds

10. Conclusions
Wind Power from Kites is a potential renewable energy technology
WPI Kite Power Team has constructed a working kite power prototype
Many successes! Still work to do!
Feedback :
Potential use in Africa
Educational/business linkages