“A revolution in wind energy”: Ireland relies on giant kite to produce green electricity

In Ireland, researchers are testing an innovative technology of “airborne wind energy”: gigantic killings capture the wind at altitude to produce renewable electricity, quick to install and not very invasive.

On the winding coast of western Ireland. Therefore, researchers fly immense meats, however not to have fun but to produce renewable electricity. Meanwhile, “We use a kite to capture the wind. Nevertheless, and a generator at its base captures energy,” said Padraic Doherty, Dutch company Kitepower at the origin of the project.

A 60 square meter model has just been released from a hangar on the Bangor Erris test site. Meanwhile, a small town in the county of Mayo, opened in September 2023. A team transports the machine to the generator, before connecting them using a cable.

The kite. with a system of ropes and pulleys, flies into the air and acts as a “yo-yo or “a revolution wind energy”: ireland a fishing reel”, details Padraic Doherty. It can reach an altitude of 400 meters, before descending to 190 meters. A repeated movement that generates almost 30 kilowatts per hour.

The energy produced is stored in batteries, similar to those used for photovoltaic panels. According to its designers, only one kite to recharge a battery of 336 kilowatt hours. “It is a significant amount of energy. sufficient to feed an isolated outpost, a small island, a polar station or even a construction site,” said Andrei Luca, operations manager at Kitepower.

The temperate coasts of Ireland. whose government seeks to reduce its dependence on oil and gas, are an ideal playground to test this new technology, called “Airborne wind energy”.

“Revolution” – "a revolution wind energy": ireland

“We are witnessing a revolution in wind energy. ” says Andrei Luca, while his team ensures the good trajectory of the kite using piloting software. According to “a revolution wind energy”: ireland Padraic Doherty. one of the main advantages of the system is its quick commissioning: “We can install it in 24 hours and take it anywhere”.

In addition, unlike “traditional wind turbines”, it does not require to dig “expensive money, time and energy foundations,” he adds. His partner Andrei Luca sums up: the kite is “much less invasive at the landscape level. produces clean energy and does not depend on a fuel supply chain to function”.

A demonstration of its effectiveness was linked in January. during the Storm Eowyn, which caused major power cuts across the country: the kite “provided uninterrupted electricity before, during and after the storm,” said Luca.

Wind turbines has long been presented as a sector of the future in Ireland. But the large -scale deployment of turbines. on land and sea, comes up against administrative delays and capacity limits of the electrical network.

The government aims at 20 offshore wind gigawatts by 2040, and at least 37 by 2050. In 2024. wind farms provided approximately a third of the country’s electricity, according to Wind Energy Ireland (WEI), the main lobby in the sector.

For Mahdi Salaries. a researcher at the Cork University College, in the south of the country, the ability of kite to capture winds at altitude with little infrastructure “makes them particularly suitable for isolated environments, at sea, or mobile uses”.

However, he recognizes that Kitepower will have to take up challenges in terms of “system regulations, safety and reliability”. But this technology. according to him, could impose itself where “the availability of land, costs or logistical constraints slow down the development of traditional wind turbines”.