Source: SciFi Tech
Written by: Peter Pachal
If you’ve ever stood on top of a tall building, you know that winds are a lot stronger higher in the atmosphere. Hasn’t it occurred to some smart skydiver that it might be a good idea to use those winds as a power generator? Well, it has, and a company in Italy called Sequoia Automation wants to take the idea into reality by using a common toy from everyone’s childhood: the kite.
The KiteGen power plant would work by letting loose a bunch of kites tethered to a central rotor. Flying over a mile high, the kites would set the rotor in motion thanks to the force of powerful winds, generating power. A radar system and winches would control the direction and angle of the kites to make sure they don’t get in the way of aircraft, birds, or each other. On paper, Sequoia predicts a KiteGen plant could produce even more power than a nuclear plant at a fraction of the cost, and the company plans to build one in the next two years. Cheaper, cleaner power for everybody?
Hey, you can’t lose with this idea — as long as it works and those 747s steer clear. We’ll leave the solar-power crowd to figure out how to power our cell phones.
Leave a Reply