World's first megawatt-class flying wind turbine

China launched world's first megawatt-class flying wind turbine which floats at 6,000 feet in the Air

World’s first megawatt-class urban-used high-altitude wind power system, the S2000 Stratosphere Airborne Wind Energy System (SAWES), completes its test flight in Yibin, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province. A pioneering energy-generating device utilizes reliable wind speeds at an altitude of 6,000 feet. A massive helium blimp generates megawatt-scale power from high-altitude winds above the clouds. A Chinese energy firm has successfully tested an experimental blimp-like wind turbine capable of generating energy in the skies above cities and inland communities. Developed by Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology, the S2000 airborne wind energy system (AWES) is a large, helium-filled airship containing 12 wind turbines. The craft ascends thousands of feet into the air to harness the stable wind speeds at higher altitudes, which spin the turbines and generate electricity. This is then sent down the tethering cable to the ground below, where it can enter the grid. We are finally learning how to farm the sky for energy. All this time, the fastest, most consistent winds on Earth have stayed just out of reach. They swirled thousands of feet above our heads while we struggled to build taller and heavier steel towers on the ground. But in a quiet corner of Sichuan Province, a 197-foot silver giant just proved that we don’t need to build towers as tall as skyscrapers for turbines, we just need a very long leash.

The S2000, a massive airborne wind energy system (AWES), completed a landmark test flight. Developed by Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology, this helium-filled “airborne power station” hovered at 6,560 feet (2,000 meters), funneling 385 kilowatt-hours of electricity directly into the local grid. In just 30 minutes, this single floating unit generated enough juice to power an average home for nearly two weeks. In its test flight, the manufacturers flew the S2000 above Sichuan Province, generating 385 kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is enough to power the average household for approximately 13.3 days, per usage figures provided by the US Energy Information Administration. In total, the S2000 clocks in at 197 feet (60 m) long, 131 feet (40 m) high and 131 feet (40 m) wide, as reported. The system is rated at 3 MW total power capacity. The new technology has a couple of potential uses, the developers suggest. "One is for off-grid settings like border outposts, where it can serve as a relatively stable conventional energy source,” explained Weng Hanke, CTO at Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology, as reported. If realized at scale, the approach could have transformational potential for countries with constrained space for onshore wind generation, such as many in mainland Europe, as well as those without the shallow seabeds necessary for offshore wind power generation, such as Japan. However, the reliability of the tethered cable for delivering stable power to the grid will require further testing.

The S2000 is a behemoth and held up by helium, it doesn’t need a massive foundation. It just needs a high-tension tether that doubles as a power line. Suffice it to say, this is a mobile setup compared to the permanent turbine structures which require a deep foundation. “At its current output level, one hour of operation can generate enough electricity to fully charge approximately 30 top-spec electric vehicles from zero to full,” Dun Tianrui, chief designer of the system, said. The system fits into standard shipping containers and can be inflated and launched in under eight hours. For remote border outposts or islands where building a traditional power plant is impossible, these blimps offer a “plug-and-play” solution for the grid. “One is for off-grid settings like border outposts, where it can serve as a relatively stable conventional energy source,” Weng Hanke explained. “The other is to complement traditional ground-based wind power systems, creating a three-dimensional approach to energy supply.” Wind turbines can generate more power where the wind power density, the measure of wind energy that can be harnessed at a given altitude, is higher. Offshore wind turbines, for example, can capture the higher, more consistent wind speeds over open water. These offshore turbines can also be significantly larger than their onshore counterparts, with the hub of Chinese manufacturer Dongfang Electric’s DEW-26 MW-310 offshore turbine standing at 606.9 feet (185 m). Floating wind turbines can be similarly gigantic, with the tower for the recently-revealed, record breaking floating wind turbine from China Huaneng Group reaching 489 feet (152 m).

For example, the average offshore wind speed deemed suitable for wind farms at 295 feet (90 m) elevation within US waters is 7 meters/second, per the Marine Cadastre National Viewer, a web-based data viewer produced by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management. In all but the most remote rural communities, the 1.25-mile (2,000 m) cable could present a dangerous obstacle to aircraft. In the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority requires those wishing to fly tethered balloons above 200 feet (60 m) to apply for special permission to avoid risk to aircraft sharing airspace with the balloon. Beyond its safety concerns, the S2000 will also need to undergo rigorous testing to ensure its viability for reliable commercial operations. Standard wind turbines require regular maintenance and the craft could prove difficult and more costly to service as it will have to return to the ground for every repair. We have come a long way with this idea. The first airborne wind turbine was demonstrated by Altaeros Energies in 2014, above Alaska. This new S2000 is the successor to the S1500, a smaller but equally impressive unit tested earlier this year in the Xinjiang region. That “basketball court-sized” craft became the first of its kind to hit the one-megawatt power mark. The new S2000 has a power capacity of 3 MW.

The project is the result of a 2018 partnership between Weng Hanke and his former high school classmate, Dun Tianrui. They spent years obsessing over atmospheric physics and lightweight materials, trying to solve the problem of how to send high-voltage power down a mile-long cable without the weight of the cable dragging the blimp out of the sky. By removing the need for massive steel towers, the team claims they can slash material use by 40% and cut the cost of electricity by 30%. In the hyper-competitive world of green energy, those margins are huge. It’s hard to state the exact wind speed at various altitudes, as this varies by location and weather. The aerospace group Omnidea estimates that at altitudes between 328 and 8,200 feet (100 and 2,500 m), wind power density increases by approximately a factor of six, with an average wind speed of 33.5 mph (15 m/s) at 8,200 feet. This highlights the potential efficiencies to be unlocked with greater exploitation of higher-altitude wind speeds with tethered, flying wind turbines such as the S2000.

Near the Earth’s surface, wind is messy. It bumps into trees, buildings, and mountains, losing its punch. But as you climb, the air clears and the wind speed skyrockets. At altitudes between 328 and 8,200 feet (100 to 2,500 meters), wind power density, the actual energy available to be harvested, increases around sixfold. The S2000 is designed to live in that high-energy sweet spot. “Traditional wind turbines operate by rotating their blades when wind strikes them, thereby generating electricity. This generator functions similarly, except that power generation occurs not at ground level but in the air,” explained Weng Hanke, co-founder and CTO of Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology. By catching these “rivers of air” in the upper atmosphere, the S2000 avoids the diminishing returns of ground-based wind. Instead of a single spinning fan on a pole, it uses a blimp-like frame to hold 12 lightweight turbines which spin constantly in the steady stratospheric currents. There is also the matter of maintenance. A traditional turbine is hard enough to service at 300 feet. A floating blimp at 6,000 feet has to be winched down to the ground for every repair, which could prove costly and time-consuming. Furthermore, helium is a non-renewable resource which is already in short supply for medical and scientific uses. Relying on it to lift our power plants adds a layer of scarcity to a “renewable” energy source. Despite these hurdles, the SAWES team is pushing for mass production in future. They aren’t just looking at the sky as a place for birds and planes anymore. They see it as a vast, untapped power source which is swirling above us for eons, just waiting for a wire.