Niche Strategies to Introduce Kite-Based Airborne Wind Energy

Abstract

Kite-based airborne wind energy systems are new high-tech systems that provide sustainable wind energy. Instead of using a wind turbine, these systems use a kite to generate energy. Commercializing such new high-tech systems is a risky strategy, the failure rate is high. This chapter identifies barriers that block large-scale diffusion of kite-based airborne wind energy systems and specific niche strategies to deal with these barriers. The results are based upon literature research and interviews with six academic and industry experts active in the field of airborne wind energy. We identified the most important barriers to large-scale implementation of airborne wind energy. We show how particular barriers, such as the lack of knowledge of the technology and the lack of support and investment opportunities, interact and together block large-scale production and diffusion. The second result is that several niche strategies can be identified to tackle the barriers in this field. The "geographic niche strategy", the "demo, experiment and develop niche strategy" and the "educate niche strategy" are identified as good strategies to introduce the kite-based systems. The chapter ends with a discussion of these niche strategies and how they relate to previous research into introduction of sustainable energy technologies. 27.1 Introduction This chapter focuses on airborne wind energy systems and explores how specific niche strategies can be selected for introducing these systems by analysing barriers to their large-scale implementation. Airborne wind energy (AWE) is a cluster of technologies with the ability to extract wind power by using airborne elements. How the wind energy is converted into

The Social Acceptance of Airborne Wind Energy: A Literature Review

“…Some authors already recognize that AWE could trigger opposition [101,102] and that understanding social acceptability issues is therefore key for developing and deploying the technology [57,[116][117][118][119]. It has even been suggested that the commercialization of AWE depends on creating a positive public vision of the technology [120]. More specifically, it was assumed that if the general public and key stakeholders perceive AWE negatively (e.g., have worries about lacking reliability and safety), it could reduce support for and investment in the technology and hinder its large-scale deployment.…”

Public Responses to Airborne Wind Energy: A Literature Review

“…Yet, some authors also recognize that AWE could trigger social resistance [82,83] and that understanding public responses is, therefore, key for the deployment of the technology [52,[91][92][93]. It has even been suggested that the commercialization of AWE depends on creating a positive public vision of the technology [94]. More specifically, if the public and key stakeholders negatively perceive AWE (e.g., due to worries about lacking reliability and safety), it could reduce support for and investment in the technology and hinder its large-scale deployment.…”

Dominant Designs for Wings of Airborne Wind Energy Systems

“…At the beginning of the 20th century, German engineer Aloys van Gries filed patents for the use of kites to use wind turbines at high altitudes. Around the 1970s, Hermann Oberth acted upon this idea as an alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear power when there was an energy crisis [2]. It took another 20 to 25 years for airborne wind energy systems (AWES) to acquire real interest because of growing awareness of global warming.…”