Member-sent notices
2009 May

TTKS   Tripodal-Tethered Kite System         
Innovation announced May 27, 2009, for energy kite system in AWE   M151 

Discussion is open.

• Consider smart morphable shape-shifting turbines, airfoils, and kite bodies for AWE also:
  Soon, shape-shifting turbines to generate electricity at any wind speed

• Jon White of Purdue University

• News release

flip-flop hub    See also double-sided hub.   Wiki      Study.

Note1: "A standard two-way freewheel solution to drive a generator is a BMX flip-flop hub. The bike wheel could be packed with concrete to make it a flywheel & the rim could fit a belt that drives a small pulley on the gen. A flip-flopped chainwheel would be another step-up stage & complete the drive train. A lever or spool on the bottom bracket would be driven by the two-way kite." Dave Santos  May 27, 2009

Note2: This is great news! A bicycle wheel can be filled with concrete between the spokes. A circular, donut plywood "floor," for the bottom side of the wheel, is made. Then filled with concrete.

So the Flip-Flop hub, chain-coupled with a Flip-Flop crank gear as well, to take the back-and-forth motion, and turn it into constant 'round-and-'round motion. A constant-velocity transmission to keep the crank rotating at the same velocity, even in low-speed winds. ~Darin Selby     May 27, 2009

How to involve the extant turbine players?

Notice that a tree's leaf has a tether in its stem; the leaf body reacts with wind with lift and drag as the leaf sail flies this way and that. Leaves are kites. Natural trees generate fruit, fuel, shade, wood, and hundreds of other benefits. Trees form a category of AWE.  Artificial trees are being proposed for solar and wind energy conversion:

• Power Plants- Artificial Trees That Harvest Sun And Wind To Generate Electricity

      Two and then One
      for an Ode to Eight for All

[What are ways kite systems might play to reduce use of coal and oil with regard to fighting fires?  Could large kites help cut open-soil lines by dragging brush-clearing tools? Could kite systems help drop fire retardant? Could kite systems help extract stranded people? Could kites cool a region by misting the area? Could kites play a role in observing lands for fires in order to alert firefighters?   Notes are welcome:
 Notes@EnergyKiteSystems.net ] M140, M141, M142

PNNL Hoisting and Rigging Manual

Mechanisms

Ratchets

• www.kitecontrolsystems.com     ????
• http://www.hansensails.com/AboutUs.htm   ????            Quote
  • Awarded two US Kite Control System patents; #6,877,697 (link) for fixed line controllers and #6,581,879 (link) for variable and fixed line controllers using power kites; has led to the success of licensing the technology within the kite industry. Bellacera; John D. (White Salmon, WA)

[Ed: The wide infrastructure of powerkitemakers and sailmakers will affect KES growth.]

Leuven, January 30, 2007 event page:    KITE-OPT 07
"Aim of the one day workshop is to bring together experts and enthusiasts for a new class of large scale wind power generator based on tethered airfoils that has the potential to significantly increase the contribution of renewables to the global electricity supply. In particular, modelling, simulation, control and optimization methods shall be discussed, and first experiments with existing small scale prototypes shall be discussed."   

Jump-Starting
A Hydrogen Assisted Economy
With A Cheap,
Renewable Hydrogen Source

by Exquadrum, Inc., with
contributing org Drachen Foundation, and David D. Lang Associates.

The Path to Low Cost Abundant Energy
March 15, 2006 (revised 3/8/2007)      Gary P. Hoffman 

[Ed: Hoffman does not seem to envision the kite-based systems at sea. We can look into the paper by Exquadrum, Inc, Drachen Foundation, and Dave Lang & Associates for a rich kite-based sea solution for a HAE or Hydrogen-Assisted Economy. ]

Exquadrum

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