I hope the design's for these are or become open-source. That would seem to me to be the key to countering large corporate control over energy. Great talk!
Far too many people only see the amount of electricity that a "device" can generate, but that is only the starting point to discuss the viability of an energy generating device, and it's pros and cons against other power generating systems! Thus if you were to compare one of these kite powered generators to a wind turbine, yes the wind turbine may generate more power per se, however, how much energy and land /or sea resources does that one turbine use and tie up! What was the cost to the environment in the manufacture of that huge structure required in the wind turbine? From what I gather, the kite power generators can be operate from/ loaded onto a truck and could be moved from place to place at short notice, according to power requirement need, a wind turbine cannot move ! Thus a kite turbine is more versatile , thus doing a pros and cons of both technologies seems only fair! The trick is to generate electrical power but at a minimum cost to the environment and the pocket! As far as I can tell, the Kite power generation system has many advantages over Wind turbines, could cost a lot less to the environment and when they eventually fail, and much could be easily recycled , cant say that much for large wind turbine structures! I am sure that there is both the need and a place for both these systems, and many other ones too!
Do you think you could make one of these linked kites make normal turbines restart when there is no "wind"? (Instead of dropping water inside turbines)
what's happened with Makani - I knew google sub bought them, they developed for a while and then folded - has anyone picked up the assets left and moved forward with it ?
@@ThomasBomb45 Hi Lily, could you point me to where their results are published? I've been coming back to the project x website, and I'm not getting anything else.
@@SriramNarayanan78 search for "Sharing Makani with the world: The Energy Kite Collection" At the bottom of the article is a downloadable Part 1, 2, and 3
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makani is from google, strange enough, when you search by kite power in google, all first results are from Makani when in fact, there are more promising companies out there with better approaches. Makani official youtube page, it does not allow comments... Which is weird too, maybe they dont want nobody mentioning that they are trying to promote them self cheating with their search engine. In any other search engine, they dont even appear on similar keywords.
Where the idea is at in 2020 (10/11 years later since video). Owned by Alphabet and investment from Shell (www.engadget.com/2019/02/12/alphabet-wind-power-kites-shell/) Videos: ru-vid.com/show-UC-iMZJ8NppwT2fLwzFWJKOQ
where can I get me one of those lol, free electricity forever. But seriously I would be saving money and be using clean energy. They should try to make it an option for people to buy.
There are many problems with the altitude the kites need to fly in, because of planes. Would only be a good idea to concentrate them in a defined single area that planes would simply avoid, selling for homes could potentially cause many accidents.
_TyCaesar_ True but some places don't receive very many planes at all, like for instance I almost never see planes in my area or there so high that there above the clouds, and the kites never go above the clouds
@@caesural what planes? I hope you know that typical passenger planes cruise at 10 km (6-7 miles) above the ground. These kites reach a couple of hundred meters (like 1000 feet) amd that's it.
@@LocPH. I was talking about residential use, as the original comment suggested that people could have these installed in their homes, and that's a safety hazard. There are smaller planes that cruize at much lower altitudes than passenger planes... besides, you don't legally own the air space ~1000 feet above your property, so you'd likely run into legal issues with this as well. These kites would more likely be installed on the sea, which would be much safer and simpler.
@@caesural I hope you understand that laws change when new technology makes it way to the market. But it doesn't matter, having your own kite is indeed dangerous and I'm not promoting it. Smaller planes like your typical Cessna are very uncommon, compared to passenger planes. The kites would take a very small area compared to where these planes fly; it's avoidable.
And,Sky islands fuelled by resources brought up from the ''flat earth'' cultures and environments...''The brownies''as the people down below are called by the Sky city lifers...