Current and Expected Airspace Regulations for Airborne Wind Energy Systems

Abstract

Safety is a major factor in the permitting process for airborne wind energy systems. To successfully commercialize the technologies, safety and reliability have to be ensured by the design methodology and have to meet accepted standards. Current prototypes operate with special temporary permits, usually issued by local aviation authorities and based on ad-hoc assessments of safety. Neither at national nor at international level there is yet a common view on regulation. In this chapter, we investigate the role of airborne wind energy systems in the airspace and possible aviation-related risks. Within this scope, current operation permit details for several prototypes are presented. Even though these prototypes operate with local permits, the commercial end-products are expected to fully comply with international airspace regulations. We share the insights obtained by Ampyx Power as one of the early movers in this area. Current and expected international airspace regulations are reviewed that can be used to find a starting point to evidence the safety of airborne wind energy systems. In our view, certification is not an unnecessary burden but provides both a prudent and a necessary approach to large-scale commercial deployment near populated areas.

Airborne wind energy resource analysis

“…A majority of the currently pursued development projects aims at ground-based conversion em- ploying crosswind operation in a pumping cycle [9,10,11]. Technological challenges are the reliability and robustness of the flying systems [12,13], reducing the land surface use [14] and the regulatory framework [15,16].…”

Clustering wind profile shapes to estimate airborne wind energy production

“…This power loss is device-specific and depends on the control strategy and is therefore not considered here. The first commercial AWE initiatives envisage a maximum operational height of 500 m because operation at higher altitudes requires more complex system designs (Watson et al, 2019, p. 4) and legislative procedures (Salma et al, 2018). For the wind resource representation for AWE, it is thus desirable to have wind data at least up to this height.…”

Aeroelastic Analysis of a Large Airborne Wind Turbine

“…With Eqs. (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), the position vector r tb can be directly computed from the values of r b1 , r b2 , R tg , R k , and T T E , and the constant bridle line lengths l b1 and l b2 .…”

“…Triggered by this potential, various concepts are currently being explored, most of them using flexible membrane or rigid wings for aerodynamic lift generation [9,10]. Compared with contemporary wind turbines, these technology demonstrators are still relatively small, generate up to tens of kilowatts, and the flying vehicles with a wing span of up to several meters can be handled by a single person or a small ground crew [11]. Aiming at utility-scale electricity generation in park configurations, several companies are advancing toward rigid-wing AWE systems of about 4-5 times the wing span of the technology demonstrators [12].…”