Airborne Wind Turbine: Harnessing High-Altitude Wind at Sea
Picture a rigid-wing kite the size of a small aircraft, tethered to a floating platform, climbing on autopilot into wind streams no seabed-mounted turbine could ever touch. That is the working premise of an airborne wind turbine, a technology that dispenses with the tower and foundation altogether and instead flies a generator or a power-transmitting wing hundreds of metres above the sea surface. For an industry hunting for ways to decarbonize offshore operations without the cost of deepwater foundations, it is one of the more provocative ideas on the table.
