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Topic    USA AWE 
U.S. AWE                          "Lead or miss the boat"
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TPL   Third Party Liability
TPL   Third Party Logistics
TPL   Technology Performance Level
TRL   Technology Readiness Level
VSM  Vortex Step Method
October 1, 2020, post by Dave Santos
    These cases show that GW-scale AWE has been conceived repeatedly, but the topological form-finding was premature.


This link is Beajean's 500MW AWES scheme at a glance-  Wayback Machine  

The undersea suction anchor is also rather creative,

============
Laddmills with loops   Laddermills and laddermills  (disambiguation and links)

Trains without loop:   (ladder without loop)Trains without loop


KiteGen Research » KiteGen Carousel (concepted with many variation from small to huge offshore arrangements)

KiteGen Carousel
October 1, 2020, post by Max

On 25.09.20 20:09, dave santos wrote:
Context: A 2 day IEA Wind online meeting just ended. The email back-traffic brought kPower back on DOE/NREL/NWTC radar. US gov has been slow to embrace AWE, but is now on the move. kPower been specially asked to present in a DOE-hosted video conference next week.

Almost overlooked that. Congratulations for that opportunity. Do you already have some initial opinions/reactions from DOE ?

Excited,

         Max

Oct. 1, 2020, post by Dave Santos

The IEA Wind event has woken up DOE. They know  Makani did not succeed as intended, and want to know more about the rest of the R&D community. Attached is a Technology Assessment outline by Lead Engineer Jochem Weber of NREL (DOE subcontract Lab) for evaluating new energy tech, that was presented to IEA Wind. I have proposed that its a good start for a comparative AWES Scoring Matrix.

There are two "reference models" being cited widely, the Makani M600, and a speculative 5MW kiteplane from a TUDelft MSc. Thesis. Considering the M600 is well documented to have used more power than it generated and how every unit that flew crashed, on average every 5.5hrs, the 5MW model will be disregarded. On the other hand, SkySails is being hailed for its first-ever utility-scale (100kW) product.

This solidly positions the Multi-r concept further along the path SkySails has proven for large soft COTS TRL9 power kites. SkySails represents the scaling and operational limitations of the single-line topology that Muli-r promises to overcome to GW-scale. By plugging in Makani and Skysails data in Jochem's Technology Assessment and extrapolating to Multi-r, it will be clear that Multi-r is the hot theoretic contender.

Joe and I need to locate an old White Paper by a Dr. Beaujean (deceased), an elite maritime engineer who conceived of a .5GW AWES that was suggestive but inelegant. That's one of the best references supportive of GW-scale AWES feasibility. There are also well-known Carousel and Laddermill concepts to cite. Multi-r is just the latest most-practical theoretic solution in the GW-scale AWES concept space.

We await reply from DOE contacts to use Weber's outline as a starting assessment basis. I reached out to SwRI, the large Texas public research institution kPower has collaborated with before, to stand ready to umbrella AWE R&D research supported by DOE. There are strategic funds that could be released as fast as 45 days, given SwRI's prequalified status. We need to be ready to define the initial scope of work.

kPower will include key international partners on a transparent equitable basis. There are EU funding streams that should begin to support Multi-r AWE R&D, to balance US DOE involment.
Sept. 22, 2020, post by Dave Santos

Congratulations Joe! I see you now top IEA Wind AWE search results (as the only AWE result for IEA Wind for two hours now *).

Context: A 2 day IEA Wind online meeting just ended. The email back-traffic brought kPower back on DOE/NREL/NWTC radar. US gov has been slow to embrace AWE, but is now on the move. kPower been specially asked to present in a DOE-hosted video conference next week. We will be presenting broad context and updated GW-scale AWES concepts to DOE. Its essential eventual massive US DOE AWE entry is balanced by global players. 

kPower has been in the DOE mix before, almost ten years ago. We were the first to present AWE at DOE/NREL/NWTC, confidently predicting the GoogleX project could not succeed. They did not listen. FortF and CathyZ jumped out of DOE into Makani. ARPA-E even gave money to Google's investment, as if they needed that. NASA-Boeing pick (SkyMill) got nothing. Before that, we led the successful effort to prevent AWE privatization of Airspace by the Google AWEC Circle secretly lobbying US Congress, by mobilizing massive public opposition by FAA/AOPA/ALPA/EAA/etc.

Things could soon happen very fast.

-----------
* Joe gets IEA Wind into AWE-

Search - IEA Wind TCP
On Friday, September 25, 2020, 12:33:38 PM CDT, Joe Faust <editor@upperwindpower.com> wrote:


Sent to 66 workers at NREL:

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Joe Faust <Editor@upperwindpower.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 25, 2020 at 10:29 AM
Subject: Airborne Wind Energy, Energy Kite Systems. Electricity Generation via Kite Systems
To:  Sixty-six people at NREL

"We might extend the application of [wind] power to the heights of the clouds, by means of kites."
 ~utopian technologist John Etzler, 1833.  

You are welcome to the contents of EnergyKiteSystems.net


Joe Faust
Editor, EnergyKiteSystems and its forums
Oct. 16, 2019                  Dave Santos

NREL's novel Technology Performance Level (TPL) Metric in AWE

NREL is now set to be a critical player in AWE R&D, so what new do they bring to the game? On the conceptual level, Technology Performance Level (TPL) stands out as a major new analytic metric, as a compliment to NASA's Technology Readiness Level (TRL) metric. TPL represents improvement over time in basic performance of any evolving technology.
Jochem Weber of NREL seems be the originator of TPL in order to better assess Wave Energy Converter (WEC) technology. There is a natural applicability to AWES technology, as Weber's WEC presentation and paper help show. Weber has already invoked TPL in his initial NREL scope of AWE research. Expect TPL to figure greatly in NREL's AWES overview.

WEC Technology Development and Structured Innovation - Jochem Weber - NREL  

https://www.nrel.gov/wind/assets/pdfs/wec-technology-performance-levels.pdf
Oct. 15, 2019                    Dave Santos

Re: [AWES] Re: AirborneMax- US Gov Officially in AWE R&D

Yes, it appears that KiteFAST was a weird reverse-contract where Google-Makani strategically hired NREL for some research. There is of course no "secret sauce" at NREL that could not be had at many a university or third-party aerospace company. This is more of a political affiliation as the US government seeks private cash-matching and private interests seek cozy official advantage. FortF's jump to Makani can therefore be seen not as "jumping ship", but more as early outreach and relationship-building under the "revolving door" public-private employment dynamic. The originally awkward FAA dynamic is being respun the same way.

All of sudden AWEurope's cozy-insider EU gov relationship has competition. Not surprising the US private-public effort snuck up on everyone with scant transparency. Complicating matters is the emerging movement to break up Google, and how the search engine giant for years has cooked AWE search in Makani's favor (outranking Wikipedia in basic AWE search), as documented by us over the years. Cc:ing Fort here, as heads-up that political expediency and private interest rarely match up with best engineering science, and there is still no public M600 Failure Modes Analysis, Mishap Reports, or Flight Logs, even if Waimea leaders need such disclosure.

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/72777.pdf
Oct. 14, 2019                          Dave Santos

AirborneMax- US Gov Officially in AWE R&D

Late to the game, official US government AWE R&D is still major news. At AWEC2019, Jochem Weber, Chief Engineer at the US National Energy Research Laboratory, is laying out AirborneMax as an AWE research program that will start by analyzing maximum scaling potential from first principles, followed by major research in best scaling architectures. This is what FortF should have got going at NREL before jumping ship to takeover Makani's premature architectural down-select, not expected to scale well.

A major US AWE R&D center is proposed near Boulder's iconic Flatiron Mountain, not the best place to do AWE in the fluky Westerly-blocking wind-shadow of the Rocky Mountains, but Wyoming's world-class gap wind is a quick hour's drive North. NREL will find itself playing homework catch-up, starting from the obvious Makani-Ampyx architectural "bifurcation", and reviewing TUDelft's stuffy ingrained thinking. Another major AWEC conceptual bifurcation, the rigid v soft wing divide, is not yet on the NREL radar, nor networked kites, and many other critical engineering dimensions known to us.

The US gov giant is waking up...
NREL_NWTC_Proposal_AirborneMax_External  
"Working hypothesis: The AWE technology type with larger per-unit installable capacity in MW/device will define the winning technology." ~~ Jochem Weber

"Objectives:
Reveal and investigate all scientific and engineering per-unit installed capacity up-scaling constraints for the competing Fly-Gen and Ground-Gen AWE types: identify the superior technology.

Quatify the disruptive step change in techno-economic performance of AWE as a true paradigm shift in wind energy.

Innovate and secure IP to overcome identified up-scaling barriers.

Develop follow-on R&D strategy for new NREL and DOE programs and establsh NREL in AWE sector. " ~~  Jochem Weber  

From:   https://prezi.com/qpimtaxnz13a/nrel_nwtc_proposal_airbornemax_external/