An object shaped like an inflatable airship was seen floating over Yibin, Sichuan Province in Southwest China earlier this month. Turns out, it wasn’t some unidentified object. In fact, it was an airborne completing its maiden in-flight grid-connected power generation test. The airborne wind energy system comprises an airship platform and wind turbines integrated in a single unit resembling a fantasy .
Dubbed the world’s first MW-class S2000 Stratosphere Airborne Wind Energy System (SAWES), it is developed by Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology and designed for use near urban areas. Its successful testing marks a demonstration of how an airborne wind power system can generate and transmit electricity down for real-world usage.
Designer: Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology
Wind turbines on the ground require a massive land area, tend to have low efficiency, and end up spoiling the landscape. The company behind the S2000 says that their Stratosphere Airborne Wind Energy System could be a difference, which definitely is not cost-effective, but is actually viable and an environmentally-friendly choice. During its testing, the floating power platform was able to rise up to about 2,000 meters, successfully delivering 385 kilowatt-hours of electricity to the local grid. The S2000 SAWES has a volume of about 20,000 cubic meters and, according to , has a maximum rated power capacity of 3 megawatts.
The system measures 60 meters long, is 40 meters high, and also 40 meters wide. The big thing took almost 30 minutes to ascend to 2,000 meters in the Yibin test. When at that altitude, it was able to maintain a stable hover, while generating power and delivering it back to the grid. The system basically uses a helium-filled balloon to get the power generation unit high into the atmosphere, where winds are generally stronger and more consistent than those near the ground. This means a power generating unit in the higher altitudes can generate and transmit several times more power compared to ground-based turbines, that with a lower carbon footprint.
When airborne the system, tethered by cable to the ground, uses it to send the power back to the ground, and also helps keep the power-generating unit stable mid-air during operation. Even though the S2000 is chiefly tested and developed for urban areas, it should be able to work just fine in remote areas, such as over a barren desert. The system, therefore, has manifold applications: while it can be used in off-grid settings offering relatively stable alternative energy, or it can function as a backup, complementing traditional ground-based wind power stations. Whatever may be the use case, S2000 is already going into production in small batches, and we could see the wind power generating airships in the stratosphere sooner than we can think.
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