An Alternative Design Approach for a Lighter than Air Airborne Wind Turbine Generator System

Research in Airborne Wind Energy Systems has determined the presence of higher wind energy densities at higher altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere. The Airborne Wind Turbine Generator is an alternative, renewable and sustainable design idea that can help us extract this higher altitude wind energy to meet the increasing commercial demand for power due to increasing population while controlling pollution and maintaining the balance against climate change. This paper discusses the mathematics, feasibility analysis, materials, advantages and designing process of a model that can be potentially implemented almost anywhere in the world for large scale commercial power generation. The design consists of a closed lighter-than-air balloon filled with an unconventional lifting gas like ammonia that carries the blade-gearbox-generator and wind lens apparatus through an insulated conducting tether connected to the ground by mean of an electric winch and two other auxiliary tether winches. A brief review of the existing designs for renewable energy has been done for a comparison in the effectiveness of the design presented in the paper.