by Asgeir Hoem in Issue 5: Sustainable (3 April 2009)
Makani Power is an exciting start-up in California, with a team of sail makers and kite designers fronted by a MacArthur genious grant recipient and a World Cup windsurfer. They build what they refer to as super-kites, aimed at harnessing energy from high altitude winds, and have already successfully been able to generate enough power to supply five average households with one not-too-big kite. With millions of dollars from Godzilla Google, they are determined to tap in to a constant source of energy, and generate the cheapest and cleanest energy yet. Wait, what, an actual solution?
Saul Griffith, the President and Chief Scientist at Makani Power, is an inventor. He is known for his low-cost technique for producing prescription eyeglasses, which is being used with success in developing nations. TIME magazine called his smart electronic rope one of the “Top Inventions of 2005″. An environmentally conscious inventor, Griffith is enthusiastic about the massive untapped source of energy that wind power represents.
Wind mills are fine and dandy, but fail at one critical point: height. Low altitude winds are weaker and less reliable than high altitude winds. The highest windmills have a hight of about 100 metres to the center; Makani intend to fly their kites at 5 to 10 km. Of all the renewable energy technologies that have been developed, “high-altitude wind has the largest energy per square foot,” and is only second to the sun in energy. The kites will be able to generate energy at a real cost far below that of the cheapest coal-fired power plant, which is considered the least expensive source of power today.
(Another spectacular project with wind power is happening in the UK, by architects Chetwoods Associates.)
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