Crosswind kite power

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Crosswind kite power is power derived from airborne wind-energy conversion systems (AWECS, also AWES) or crosswind kite power systems (CWKPS). The kite system is characterized by energy-harvesting parts flying transversely to the direction of the ambient wind, i.e., to crosswind mode; sometimes the entire wing set and tether set are flown in crosswind mode. From toy to power-grid-feeding sizes, these systems may be used as high-altitude wind power (HAWP) devices or low-altitude wind power (LAWP) devices without having to use towers. Flexible wings or rigid wings may be used in the kite system. A tethered wing, flying in crosswind at many times wind speed, harvests wind power from an area that exceeds the wing's total area by many times.

Crosswind kite power systems have some advantages over conventional wind turbines, including access to more powerful and stable wind resources, a high capacity factor, capability for deployment on and offshore at comparable costs, and no need for a tower. Additionally, the wings of the CWKPS may vary in aerodynamic efficiency; the movement of crosswinding tethered wings is sometimes compared with the outer parts of conventional wind turbine blades. However, a conventional traverse-to-wind rotating blade set carried aloft in a kite-power system has the blade set cutting to crosswind and is a form of crosswind kite power.

Miles L. Loyd furthered studies on crosswind kite power systems in his 1980 work "Crosswind Kite Power".^[1] There are crosswind advocates who believe that crosswind kite power was introduced by P. Payne and C. McCutchen in their patent No. 3,987,987, filed in 1975;^[2] however, crosswind kite power was used far before such a patent, e.g., in target kites for war-target practice, where the cross winding power permitted high speeds to give practice to gunners.^[3]