Introduction to the Kite Wind Generator Project
风筝风力发电机工程介绍
Massimo Ippolito
R&D Director, Sequoia automation - Chieri (TO)
information@kitewindgenerator.com
Summary
摘要：
In all of the institutional and government documents, it has been declared that the role that renewable energy sources would be able to occupy, is a percentage that “optimistically could not exceed 12%” (according to the projections up to the year 2010.) The percentage changes very little even in 2020 or 2050. The perplexing fact is that by making some simple calculations with the available data, one is struck by the recognition, that already in the immediate future (2015) the percentage divisions between the renewable and the non-renewable sources will have to be inverted, simply to avoid that half of the world’s population dies of hunger. The studies regarding the peaking of the world oil supplies and world uranium supplies has irrefutably confirmed the above stated prediction. This state of affairs is colliding against the inertia of those very institutions faced with the problem.
所有的学术及政府文件都宣称，根据到2010年止的计划，可循环能源的利用比例最多不会超过12%。即使到2020年或2050年,这一比例也不会有太大变化。目前的复杂状况是，根据现有数据做出的一些简单结论中有一点是公认的，即在不久的将来（2015年），可循环能源和不可循环能源的利用比例将完全颠倒，这也只是为了避免世界上半数人口死于饥饿，而关于世界石油供给和铀供给的距增的机关研究也绝对地证实了上述预言。事情的状况和问题的发展趋势却是相冲突的。
With the present model for development, the modern world has reached the edge of the cliff for those energy sources that are easy to come by, and if an adequate alternative does not appear in the near future, the earth’s energy supply will be costly, scarce and difficult to achieve.
一些较易产生的能源快被耗费殆尽了，据现在的发展模式来看，现代社会已经走到了能源危机的边缘了。不久的将来如果人类还没有发现足够的新型备用能源的话，必得付出昂贵的代价，历经千辛万苦才能获取地球上所剩无几的能源。
The project was born from an intuition, a cross fertilization between a captivating extreme sport, Kite Surfing, and the author’s own profession revolving around the design of sensors and numeric control systems for industrial automation. Prior to becoming aware of the possibilities for the idea, the first phases of the work were aimed at satisfying a passion for pure research. Then, as the data obtained pointed to the immense potential of the hypothesis, it furthered the motivation to investigate all aspects of the concept in depth.
这一工程源于直觉，一个发生于风筝冲浪运动和创造者自己的专业之间的“异花授精”过程，风筝冲浪是个迷人的极限运动，创造者则一直致力于设计工业自动化中的传感器和数控系统。在意识到这一想法的可行性之前，第一阶段的工作只志在满足于纯研究的热情。而后因为这一设想研究所得的数据表明这一工程有着极大的潜在可行性，使得创造者更有动力去深入地研究此事。
The Wind resource for energetic purposes
节能风能利用
The power of the sun that illuminates our planet is equal to 10,000 times the raw energy necessary to mankind, the equivalent of 200 million nuclear power plants. (200,000 TW). A good part of this energy is reflected or absorbed by the atmosphere and does not reach the ground: 30% is absorbed on clear days and 90% on overcast days.
太阳照射到地球上的能量为人类所必须的自然能量的一万倍，相当于二十亿核电站的能量。其中的部分能量由大气层反射或吸收了，没有抵达地球，晴天有30%被吸收，阴天则是90%。
The atmosphere transforms part of this energy into mechanical energy, in other words into wind. In this manner the earth’s atmosphere behaves like the largest and most efficient solar collector.
大气层将其中部分能量转化成机械能，换句话说也就是风。这样一来地球大气层就成了一个巨大的高效的太阳能吸收器。
The studies evaluating the wind as a resource have estimated that the atmosphere contains 270 times mankind’s primary energy needs, the equivalent of 7 million nuclear plants.
一些学者们视风为一种能源，据他们估计，大气层中包含的能量相当于人类基本能量需求的270倍，约为七百万核电站的能量。
The atmosphere has also done us the favour of concentrating this energy into a relatively limited space. Two ribbons of wind completely encircle the earth; the one situated in the southern hemisphere is at the latitude of Tierra del Fuego, and the other passes through Europe and the Northern United States.
大气层还将这些能量集中到一个相对狭小的空间内。形成两股刚好完全环绕地球的风。其一位于南半球，与火地岛同一纬度，另一个刚直穿欧洲和美国北部。
The altitude of this ribbon goes from 500 to 10,000 metres, and its breath from 4 to 5000 kilometres. The power of this wind section averages 2kW per square metre.
这股风的海拔从500m到10，000m，风力范围从4m到5000m不等。平均风力为2kw/m2。
The order of magnitude is easily obtainable as follows:
5.000km x 9,5 km = A (area of the rectangle that constitutes the section, wind front of the ribbon).
A x 2.000 w/per square metre = 95.000.000 MW
可得到的风力由下可知：
5.000km x 9,5 km = A (组成风筝线前面区域的矩形面积).
A x 2.000 w/平方米 = 95.000.000 MW
From this we can deduce that the wind that passes over Europe has the force of 100,000 nuclear plants. This leads us to consider how it is that a series of kites can entrap and exploit this enormous renewable energy source that high altitude winds represent.
据此我们可以推断出当风穿过欧洲时，风力约有十万核电站的能量。
这也引导我们考虑如何利用这种巨大的可循环利用的能量，用风筝将高纬度的风所带来的能量利用起来。
The Kite Wind Generator
风筝风力发电机
The KITE WIND GENERATOR project has as its objective to demonstrate the feasibility of controlling the movement of an array of power kites, in order to generate vast quantities of electrical energy from the wind.
风筝风力发电工程旨在论证控制大批风筝运动的可行性，进而用风力发电。
These power kites are constructed so as to take off in a light breeze. They are essentially giant airfoils whose individual surfaces are several dozen square metres. They are manoeuvred from the ground via a pair of high resistance lines, that control their direction and their angle with regard to the wind. In the presence of high winds, a single kite is capable of exerting a traction force equivalent to several hundred kiloNewton, travelling at speeds that can exceed 80 metres per second (300km/h.).
The product of the force multiplied by the speed bears witness to the order of magnitude of the potential power generated by the kite.
(The calculations needed to obtain the precise values of the power released by the kite, are actually somewhat more complex, as they employ additional variables.)
制造出这种动力风筝使之能借风起飞。实际上它们是一些几十平方米大的巨翼。它们由地面上的一双高阻线操纵着，这些线控制了它们的方向及与风的角度。
在这样的疾风中，一只风筝就可以有几百千牛顿的牵引力，速度可以超过80m/s （即300km/h) 这一力度因速度而加倍 ，由风筝产生的无穷潜力。 如果将其他一些变数再考虑进来的话，关于风筝释放出来的能量的精确计算还会更为复杂。
In the troposphere, around 1,000 metres in altitude, the presence of stronger and more constant winds has been attested to, by decades of measurements. In these winds, the force that the kite transmits to the cables, can be channelled to generate electrical energy.
经过数十次的测量，人们已经证实了有更强劲的风存在于海拔1000m的对流层。
风筝将风力传给风筝线以发电。
The Project intends to implement an electronic control system that autonomously pilots the kite, so that its flight pattern will maximise the production of energy.
The KITE WIND GENERATOR can be envisioned as a giant merry-go-round, solidly anchored to the
ground. Its nucleus consists of a central structure, tall enough to support the ‘arms’ by means of a tensostructure.
This ‘carousel’ is put into motion by the wind itself, that drags the kites out from their funnels within the arms, and into the sky. The rotating central structure contains the automatic winches that release the pairs of cables which guide the kites. (The cables’ length
can exceed a thousand metres).
As the kites circle in the air, the vertical rotating axis of the structure activates large scale alternators, that have been geared down to receive the force exerted on them. At its full capacity the flight of the entire kite array is guided, so as to turn the carousel at the
desired speed.
An aeolic power plant conceived in this fashion is capable of producing the energy equivalent to a nuclear power plant, while exploiting an area of few square kilometres, without occupying exclusively it. (The majority of this area can still be used for agriculture, or navigation in the case of an offshore installation.)
工程打算安装一个电力控制系统来自动操纵风筝，这样一来它的飞行状态就能最大限度地产生能量。
可以视风筝风力发电机为一牢牢固定在地面的巨型旋转木马。木马由一中枢结构和一外张结构组成，外张结构要求有一定的高度用以支撑 “木马的臂膀”。
这一转盘由风本身来驱动，风通过臂膀中的间隙来拉支风筝飞向空中。这一旋转式结构的中心有一自动绞盘，用来释放牵引风筝的线（线可长至千米）。
当风筝在天空盘旋时，结构体的垂直转动轴会带动一大型交流发电机，此发电机用以接收风筝作用在结构体上的力。当发电机充满能量发动时，转动整个结构体，使之达到预想中的速度。
大型KWG-600和1MW型风车的比较
红色区域代表有关的风力区域，类似于这两个系统的总重量
圆形底部支撑物，伸张式结构，前后型风筝排列
Scalability of the system
The KITE WIND GENERATOR is an installation that produces energy in proportion to its size. As its
diameter is increased, the amount of energy captured grows exponentially. This amount is further
augmented by the higher altitude of the kites, thus the stronger winds that they are in contact with.
Some examples of these values, can be:
The maximum possible diameter of a KITE WIND GENERATOR is one of the objects of study of this
project, but from the initial evaluations, it appears possible to exceed 5,000MW (5 Gigawatts) without great structural risks, with a diameter of slightly more than 2000 metres.
It is opportune to consider that 5,000 MW is the equivalent of five nuclear plants, whose construction cost is at present 7.5 billion euro. It is possible to demonstrate that a KITE WIND GENERATOR of that size has a construction cost that is a mere fraction of that figure.
Feasibility
The authors of this project are fully aware of the important engineering questions surrounding the proposal. Among these, the main one, whose solution is instrumental to all of the others, is that of the automatic expert control of the direction and speed of the kites flight.
Avionic sensors on board kites and their control techniques have been an object research of Sequoia Automation Srl over the past years. The sensors themselves have been in production for industrial automation for the past five years (see www.sequoiaonline.com). The software for the
control of the kites has been successfully completed in an emulation environment.
The first prototype to be built will serve to verify the work done in a emulation environment, taking into consideration the numerous variables, to successfully control the flight of the kites as if they were gliders without a pilot.
The kite, (unlike a glider) does not have a rigidly guidable structure; the two commands which control it are those of Left/Right, transmitted by varying the tension on one of the two cables. If the pilot installation proves to be a success the KITE WIND GENERATOR will serve as the basis for a revolution in energy production, which will be destined to significantly alter the production quotas in favour of renewable energy sources.
The final objective of the project is the construction of a carousel with a vertical axis, capable of generating 1 GigaWatt, with an investment of 360,000� ca. This power plant would produce energy at a cost of 1.5 � per MegaWattHour.
At present a megawatt produced with a fossil fuel plant costs 80�: fifty three times that amount. The implications of this possibility are clear, and we believe, quite promising.
Final considerations
Wind is an element of our environment to which mankind has often ascribed (perhaps for psychological and instinctive reasons) the quality of airy lightness, as opposed to that of weight and force.
It is possible that if we were not aided by the recognition that birds fly, the idea of inducing heavy objects to take to the air, would not have found stubborn inventors but only enormous scepticism. It is probably for this reason, and for this form of ‘instinct’ that the idea of extracting large amounts of energy from the high altitude winds can appear to be a chimera.
It is not to be excluded that it gives rises to scepticism, despite the fact that for millennia the energy produced by the wind has been used for the work of inducing heavy and cumbersome and
otherwise immobile galleons to cross the oceans.
At present winged objects weighing many tons fly across these same oceans buoyed up by aerodynamic forces to which our primordial instincts attribute only minor strength.
With these considerations we hope to avoid the risk that a project with such high potential could be considered ‘too good to be true’ to receive the attention and financing that it deserves.
Feasibility
可行性
此项工程的创造者也充分意识到了与此建议相关的能源问题的重要性。主要问题是哪个更机械化一点，哪个能自动地更好控制风筝的方向及速度。
木制风筝上的传感器及其控制技术也是Sequoia Automation Srl过去几年内的研究对象。五年前传感器就已被运用到工业自动化中（见www. sequoiaonline.com）。在充满竞争的环境中，控制风筝的软件也已被成功开发出来了。
将要建造的第一个原型将会用于检验这一成果，用以考察诸多变数带来的变化，最终能成功在无人驾驶的情况下控制风筝的滑翔。
风筝不似滑翔机有坚实的导翔结构；控制它飞行的左右两个翼，风筝取而代之的是将其拉力传到两个缆线之一上。如果导航系统能够成功的话，风筝风力发电机将会成为能源开发产品革命的主力军，且注定会在可循环利用能源开发的战役中占据相当的份额。
计划的最终的目的是 一个有竖轴的转盘，可以发电10亿瓦特，获利36万，此电站的成本为1.5�兆瓦特/小时
目前旧有的燃料发电站产生一兆瓦特的电成本是80�，是这种发电站的53倍。这种可能性的含意是很明显的，而且我们相信，此项目大有前途。
风是我们生存环境中的一个元素，也许是从心理也许是出于本能，人们总将风的产生归因于空气的轻的本质，与之相反的便是重。
如果人类没有从鸟儿飞翔中受启发，将重的东西携至空中，也不会那么多执着的发明家，只会有无数的迷信思想。也许正是因为这个原因，因为这种形式的本能，从高纬度的疾风中萃取大量的能源的主意才能得以实现。
尽管数千年来风力只被用来推动承载着沉重货物的大型帆船渡过茫茫大海，不能说它助长了迷信
，现如今，各种飞行工具凭借空气动力携带着成吨成吨的东西从同个海洋上方飞过，而我们的原始本能只能是通过微薄的力量。
从这些角度考虑，我们希望不会因为此项目有如此巨大的潜力而使您觉得“好的不似真的”，我们期待着它能吸引您，能获得此项目应得的资金。
风筝风力发电机工程介绍
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