German utilities EnBW and EWE together with kite wind specialist SkySails Power and the Leibniz University Hannover are developing and testing a fully-automated airborne system for onshore deployment.
Flying kites are designed to harness energy in higher air layers where greater yields and more stable wind speeds prevail. Earlier SkySails projects have focused on offshore wind.
EnBW thinks the high-altitude wind technology, called SkyPower100, could become a supplement to conventional wind generation.
