Hi Doug,
It is not difficult to defend this AWE project which is no more criticizable than another. To begin with, the commercial results are identical to those of other AWE projects towards electricity generation, and without requiring public or private funds.
That said I prefer AWES farm in bumper car mode to networks which seem difficult to implement.
Moreover my experiments have tended to downplay the advantages of the crosswind kite. But its overestimation is not unique to the project mentioned in this topic, far from it.
And this project at least has the merit of implementing techniques from the kite itself.
The author could indeed be back soon, and try to promote this project, in a field that is stagnating.