What are some of the variables involved?
(not yet comprehensive)

See also:  Variables  | Parameters  |  Parameters of interest to investors  | Aspects  | AWE aspects
| Methods |

LCOE- Very tricky to design for, perhaps the most complex key variable of all.
Max Power- An top deliverable, but no good at all if other critical variables are neglected.
Max Stability- Generally overlooked in favor of active autonomy beyond current state-of-the-art.
Safety- Absolutely essential and well understood, but with complex economic dimensions.
KIS (Low Complexity)- Early favored and possibly unbeatable, but requires great faith and focused discipline.
Operations- Many ideas are doomed by gaps in operational practicality (like jumbo kiteplane VTOL).
Capital Cost- A high LCOE is acceptable in many cases if the "cost of entry" is low enough, and payback is fast.
Maximized Space- Land and airspace efficiency will determine acceptability in key cases.
Robust Reliability- Essential, but deeply interdependent with other essential variables.
Insurability, Regulatory Compliance, Social Factors, etc..

Discuss: AirborneWindEnergy/message/8292

• Kite system choice
• Control. Is the control automatic and run by expert programs?    KC1    KC2
• Altitude
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• Environmental impact
• Liability profile
• Cost-of-energy (COE)
• Scalability
• Niche application definition
• Operation lessons
• Wear rate
• Duty cycle
• Operational life of parts of the kite system
• UV impact on system
• Flapping wear
• Fatigue
• Robustness
• Output level
• Wind range
• Power transmission
• Social
• Site cost
• Airspace
• Regulation of large installed kite systems to assure safe and efficient operation
• Wind variability and times of inadequacy
• Generator position
• Energy stored or sent to immediate uses?
• Heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air
• Economies
• Pollution footprint
• Controllers
• Expert algorithms facing changes in the wind, action of the kite system
• Degradation of system parts from solar radiation, wear, moisture, fatigue
• Human-hour cost to operate and maintain the kite system
• Type of motion
• Application parameters
• Pitch control
• Angle of attack control
• Porosity control
• Shape morphing
• Temporary powering for initial climb
• Keeping generator and conductors on ground while using line tension and position variability for operating generators
• Icing
• Calms
• Point use
• Grid use
• Storing kite-sourced energy in order to later generate electricity (e.g., pump water to a head that provides potential energy that later could drive turbines to drive a electrical generator)
• Territory permissions
• Line handling safety and reliability
• Safety in all parts of the kite system
• Public safety
• Territory occupation
• Intermittency of wind
• Variability of wind
• Availability of wind

• capacity density        Per square kilometer, how much energy from a wind farm or kite-energy farm may be sent to a grid or to an energy storage arrangement? 

  • NREL Wind Power Land-Use Study and Standards

• Kite stability factors:  AirborneWindEnergy/message/8302

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