The closest to steady AWE power theoretically is a statistical collection of AWES across a large grid, as Cristina Archer modeled around five years ago. In that case,

tr.v. sus·tained, sus·tain·ing, sus·tains

Lets finally agree with the caution linked below that WECS Steady-State estimations are difficult and "not strictly correct". This is true of regular turbines, and even more so for an AWES reeling cycle. Doug cannot possibly agree, if only by his certainty everything I post is wrong, and Wubbo is getting away ;)

The performance of small wind turbines including annual energy output.

"The determination of the steady state response of a system from tests with randomly fluctuating inputs is a classical problem in system identification and it is not in general a simple problem. To overcome this difficulty, the International Electrotechnical Commission recommends a testing procedure (IEC 61400-12) that, whilst not strictly correct, will give power curves generally of sufficient accuracy for practical purposes. The procedure requires that the wind speed and power output in a normal wind are effectively logged instantaneously at intervals of one second or less. The power output data is then 'binned' at speed intervals of 0.5 metre/second and then an average value of power output obtained from the 'binned' values. 'Binning' means, for example, that all the power readings that occurred between wind speeds of, say, 8.0 and 8.5 metres/second are collected and their average taken as the power output that would be obtained in a steady wind of 8.25 metres/second. There is an assumption in this that the time lag for a step downward change in wind speed is the same as the time lag for an upward step change in wind speed and that the occurence of increasing and decreasing speed events within the 'binned' data are the same. Generally, the IEC procedure will give power curves of acceptable accuracy for practical purpose although some errors will arise from large gust events. Errors will also occur for turbines that use a tail fin to furl the turbine away from the wind at high wind speeds. This furling action behaves quite differently between increases in wind speed and decreases in wind speed. However, this too is not likely to be significant unless the turbine is operating at a very windy site where the furling action is in play for a good proportion of the time."

 

The SkyBow is a special kind of arch-kite. KiteShip's OL ship kite, studied in staked-out scenario, inspired Mothra as a megascalable kite-arch, with modular sails on rope load-paths, as the key advance. The integration of these two arch concepts has interesting potential as a novel AWES hybrid.

A single SkyBow is scale-limited by tensile strength of a thin ribbon-wing and the need for a stiff chord. If an OL kite's TE where replaced by a fenestration pattern of load-path SkyBows, a large integrated WECS array would be created, with the summed output of many ribbon-wings.