Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume.
This Monday, he is interested in a technology invented by the German startup, Skysails.
This is a new type of wind turbine that works with kite-surf kites like on beaches.
Today's innovation could combine landscape preservation and renewable energies. This is a new type of wind turbine that works with kites. We will no longer see pylons with huge propellers on the horizon. But kitesurfing wings like on the beaches.
Except that at the end of the day, there won't be a surfer teasing the waves, but an electricity generator.
It's a whole new way to recover wind power.
We send a kite-surf kite very high in the sky.
He is made to describe eight to pull on the cable with maximum power.
This then turns a turbine and a generator.
It's a bit like the yoyo principle, but backwards.
Everything is automatic?
Yes.
When there is no more wind, the system automatically lowers the kite.
He folds it up, puts it away and, when the wind comes back, he takes it off again.
Advantage: it takes up very little space on the ground (everything fits in a container), it gives very little shade, no noise, no impact on the birds.
And when there is no wind, you can't see anything sticking out on the horizon.
Quite the opposite of propeller wind turbines.
Which, in addition, become larger and larger to take advantage of the high altitude winds (the most powerful and regular).
Winds that are easier to pick up with a kite, without distorting the landscape.
Do these kite-surf wind turbines already work?
Yes.
The technology has just been validated after two years of evaluation.
We wanted to check both automatic operation and possible nuisance for residents, airplanes or birds.
And everything went well.
It is a German startup, Skysails, which developed this technology.
It will now be industrialized, with the objective of building kite-surfing parks generating several megawatts of electricity.
We should therefore hear about it again.