INVITATION

The faculties of Aerospace Engineering (AE), Mechanical, Maritime and Material Engineering (3ME), Civil Engineering and Geo-sciences (CEG), Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences (EEMCS) and Technology Policy and Management (TPM) invite to join this activity of the TU Delft Wind Energy Institute (DUWind).

This academic year 2014-2015 DUWind organises a monthly Thursday-gathering called Duwind op Donderdag (DoD). Anybody considering him- or herself as part of the wind energy community is warmly invited to join and meet like-minded colleagues, fellow students and other interested people. Different subjects and activities will have the floor, all related to research, education and/or industry in the broad and dynamic world of wind energy.

The upcoming event will be focussed on Airborne Wind Energy & Kite Power Generation.

Date and time: 18 September 2014, 17.30-21.00, walking dinner included.

Location: Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Room D.

Airborne wind energy concepts employ tethered flying devices such as wings or balloons to harvest wind energy. The tether is used to transfer either traction power or onboard-generated electricity to the ground. A central driving force for the development of the various technologies is the substantial material reduction that can be achieved by substituting tower and foundation of conventional wind turbines by a lightweight tether and ground anchor. Another attractive feature is the operational adaptability to the available wind conditions, including altitude.

About 50 professional R&D activities on airborne wind energy can be counted today, of which 50% have reached a serious prototype stage. Prominent examples are the German company SkySails, which markets a traction-assist solution for container ships with wings of up to 320 m2 wing surface area, and the Californian company Makani Power, which was acquired in 2013 by Google and is currently building the M600, a prototype wing of 30 m wing span generating 600 kW. Major scientific advances have been in the fields of control and automation while the current technological challenges appear to shift towards operational reliability, robustness and material durability.

The objective of this event is to introduce the technology and to discuss a subset of representative projects, focusing on the developments in the Netherlands and Switzerland. Speakers will be Dr. Rolf Luchsinger, Managing Director of TwingTec, Dübendorf (CH), Alfred van den Brink, Technical Director of E-Kite, Barneveld (NL), Dr. Michiel Kruijff, Head of Product Development of Ampyx Power, Den Haag (NL), Dr. Henk Polinder, Associate Professor and expert on electrical machines at the EEMCS faculty of TU Delft and Dr. Roland Schmehl, Associate Professor and Head of the Kite Power Research Group at the AE faculty of TU Delft.

Register by sending an e-mail with subject ‘I DoD Kite’ to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .