Abstract
The AWE concept presented in this paper is put into practice by the NTS-GmbH in Berlin. An AWE plant based on this principle—an X-Wind plant—utilizes automatically steered kites at altitudes between 100 and 500 m to pull rolling carts continually along an oval railway track. Each cart is equipped with a generator to convert its kinetic energy into electricity. The mechanism applied is comparable to regenerative braking systems in modern trains and trams. Hence, the NTS concept merges well known technologies to a unique and flexible AWE plant: kites and rail technology. In this paper, a short introduction into the concept is given and the current status of the NTS-project is presented.
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References
Luetsch, G.: High Altitude Wind Power Plants: Dealing with the risks. AIAA Paper 2011- 6908. In: Proceedings of the 11th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference, Virginia Beach, VA, USA, 20–22 Sept 2011. doi: 10.2514/6.2011-6908
NTS Nature Technology Systems. http://www.x-wind.de/en/. Accessed 24 May 2013
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The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their critical but constructive comments that helped to improve the paper.
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Ahrens, U., Pieper, B., Töpfer, C. (2013). Combining Kites and Rail Technology into a Traction-Based Airborne Wind Energy Plant. In: Ahrens, U., Diehl, M., Schmehl, R. (eds) Airborne Wind Energy. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39965-7_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39965-7_25
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