Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: August 31, 2004
Article Type: Journal

Electrical power generation using kites has been given a preliminary study by David D. Lang Associates, Seattle, on behalf of the Drachen Foundation. As its mandate, the Foundation seeks to increase and diffuse knowledge about kites worldwide.

The study spans power levels from municipal to small domestic applications. Five schemes for power generation were identified and examined.

They were evaluated with 12 criteria: maximum power potential, scalability (ability to accommodate a range of power), practicality, potential for autonomous operation, manufacturing cost relative to return on investment, prototyping cost, complexity, safety relative to design intent, environmental impact, accommodating wind variability, probability of success when demonstrated, and probability of operational success.

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