Laddermill Energy Kites Demonstrated

Dutch ex-astronaut and Physicist Dr Wubbo Ockels successfully demonstrated his Laddermill in a field near the university city of Groningen, The Netherlands, on August 29th. His radio-controlled high-flying energy kite, created 10.5kW of electrical energy. The experiment was carried out along the northern coastline of The Netherlands where there's usually more than enough wind to raise the gigantic kites. The Laddermill is designed to capture the energy contained in the airspace at altitudes as high as 10 km.

Description of the principle of operation of the Laddermill as it appears on the Laddermill website:

The Laddermill consists of a series of wings or kites all connected to a cable that forms a huge loop. Like the wings of an airplane will the wind cause an upward lift force to the wings. By changing the attitude of the wing (angle of attack with respect to the wind) can the lift force be made larger or smaller. The wings on one side of the cable loop are all placed such that they produce the maximum lift force, while the wings on the other side of the loop will give a much smaller lift that in fact is just sufficient to support their own weight and the weight of the cable. The result is a large difference in force between the two ends at the ground. When the cable loop is guided around a wheel on the ground the force difference will drive the wheel. By connecting the wheel to a generator electricity will be produced. The wind energy aloft has thus been transferred to electricity on the ground.

Cost calculations have been made that include the cable and wing constructions as well as the ground station mechanisms, power conversion and storage. These calculations lead to an expected installation cost of FL 1000.- or 400 US$ per kilowatt. A 10 megawatt Laddermill system would thus cost 8 million guilders and would provide an average of 3.5 megawatt electrical power. This leads to 5 cent/kWh when amortizing the investment over 4-5 years.

This concept like those of Magenn and Sky WindPower, may lead to sources of wind power that can be located almost anywhere, because of their ability to capture power at high altitudes where the wind is stronger and more consistent.  The Laddermill is the first of these systems to actually fly and generate power, so it may have a leg up.  All of them use technology that will require a lot of development if they are ever to be commercial.  Tyler at Clean Break has a recent post on Magenn, its changes in management and financial concerns.

Comments

[Harvey D]

Dreams.........

[Stephen Boulet]

Not dreams, physics. With the generator on the ground, it would seem to have a technical advantage over the Magenn design. Then again, maybe the Magenn is more stable.

Stephen

[fabiomas]

If you want to see another system

http://www.kitegen.com/index_eng.html

[Tom Konrad]

What I wonder about these sky turbines is how they are going to make sure that airplanes don't fly into the cables that connect them to the ground. Seems like there are actually very few places that have the requisite lack of air travel.

[JohnBo]

What a weird contraption. I would guess it is going nowhere. Have you ever been fishing on the bank of a river between 20 other guys. It's tangle up city! Ha-ha. JohnBo

[Drew]

Planes can, and, already do, fly around power plants. The FAA might need a little pushing like any bureucracy, but I assure you, people care about affording electricity for the TV's and major appliances far more than they care about air travel. Also, it is not clear at all to me that air travel as we know it will still exist more than a decade or two from now due to rising oil prices.

As for tangles, remember that the sky is very large compared to anything man can build.

[Greg Woulf]

NOAA flies quite a few tethered balloons all the time and that doesn't cause problems.

The kites would be in constrained locations and the largest field would be a cone from the tether to the full length.

I'm not sure it's the best high altitude kite, but if it generates positive energy then I'm all for it.

[Paul Dietz]

NOAA flies quite a few tethered balloons all the time

Replacing 1/3 of the US electrical generation with such devices would require about 100,000 of them. I don't think NOAA is constantly flying 100,000 tethered balloons.

This has Rube Goldberg written all over it.

[kim]

Paul -- Rube Goldberg's contraptions were so effective that you still remember his name after all this time.
Any invention is weird in its first incarnation -- that's what they mean when they say it needs development.

[Paul Dietz]

Rube Goldberg's contraptions were so effective that you still remember his name after all this time.

Ah, so the purpose of these devices is to provide entertainment, not energy?

[Nathan]

Ah, so the purpose of these devices is to provide entertainment, not energy?

Here I am all this time entertaining myself with electricity. Cut one step out of the equation. T_T

[Greg Woulf]

100,000 or 1, you still have to have areas that are no fly. It's easier with a few larger fields than it would be with smaller scattered ones.

A field of 1,000 of these might take up 10 square miles. I don't know that this will work, but it won't be a little air space that will stop it.

I agree that it seems like something is wrong with the design. Something seems inefficient.

[JohnBo]

The reason this thing won’t work is physics. It has too many moving parts, the parts are light weight hence prone to wear, it depends on the wind, it produces little energy, it requires a constant speed governor or elaborate electronics to maintain 60 Hz power, etc. This all leads to high maintenance, short life and failure as a product. Forget it… Ha-ha. JohnBo

[David Shepard]

Laddermill is to be congratulated on their demonstration. However, Prof. Bryan Roberts and his colleagues demonstrated a Flying Electric Generator over a decade ago in Australia.

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Pretty weird to say that you would need 100,000 kites, based on the power output of an early demonstrator.
The output of an individual kite can and will be increased, as is normal in going from demonstrator to production models.
They also do not need to fly at the altitude of cruising airplanes - anywhere above 800meters or so should be fine.
As for the 'delicate' nature of the technology, check out the kites shown in the video here to tow a ship:
http://skysails.info/index.php?L=1
They are putting a system on a 400foot ship this month.

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