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Issue 79 - May 31, 2007
Special GREEN ISSUE - Earth calls, is time to reply

Renewable sources - The latest frontiers
LIGHT, WIND AND SEA TO PRODUCE ENERGY
FIVE ACES TO DRAW QUICKLY
by Giuseppe Caravita

...Another new energy source, continuous and powerful, is altitude wind. Here, since five years, the key idea is Italian, the Kite Gen project, started by Massimo Ippolito, that last summer begun testing its power kites, flying at high altitude and anchored to "big mills" to exploit the wind...

Altitude wind power generation
POWER KITES IN FLIGHT TESTS
High altitude wind blows continuously. And this summer will take off the second prototype of Kite Gen, the super-kite for the future of wind power generation. A wing built in special materials that will reach 800 m above the ground and should confirm the first results of last summer's tests, where at 200 m was verified the high density of kinetic energy obtainable through Kite Gen. An idea authored by a mechatronic expert from Turin, Massimo Ippolito, and today at the core of an operative project financed by the Piedmont Region that associates the Politecnico of Turin, Sequoia Automation, Modelway and CeSI. The aim to build a "carousel" of power kites able to rotate without interruption and thus to produce energy, with a density, in one cubed kilometer, equal to a nuclear power plant. Few days ago, from the consortium of SMEs, Kite Gen Research Srl was born, already depositing the first international patents. Next steps, after testing the power kite, will be the network of sensors to provide the aerial stability of the carousel and then the rotating base for the production of electricity.

Original Italian .PDF version