Yes, certainly no need to impress me. I was just sticking with Joe’s stated theme, that “providing shade”, specifically far taking a nap under on a hot, sunny day, using a discarded tarp, suspended horizontally by tethers, counted as “airborne wind energy”. The scale model is complete. The tarps are casting shadows and available for nap-taking. Your work is done. It’s almost like a superturbine™ - a super-tarp, or several tarps sharing the same support system, where several mice can take a nap at the same time!
(Almost like a Bose-Einstein condensate of naps - where one sleeping mouse becomes indistinguishable from the next). In the future, as the concept is expanded, multiple humans will be able to nap simultaneously at mid-day, which amounts to essentially a super-nap. But wait, there’s more. Since the nap is at mid-day, with the sun directly overhead, when the most energy is saved, it is a super-power-nap, saving the energy of many active, awake humans would simultaneously expend if awake, fulfilling the goal of AWE. And of course there is the energy that would otherwise be expended on air-conditioners to provide the same cooling in full sunlight that would otherwise be expended for that many people to all take a power-nap together. No meters needed - the power is in the nap! 
I can only encourage this research, especially as it builds on the little-explored elements of networked kites to achieve scalability beyond what seems possible.
Although I do not yet understand the details of this device, I do not see any obvious obstacles against its possible realization.
Hi Pierre: That sort of (non-)thinking is what Professor Crackpot thrives on!
Starting with nothing, anything is possible. Usually, one would hope that someone promoting such a concept, as an economical “advanced” energy solution, would have a working unit, or at least a complete explanation of how it is supposed to work, before making any claims, or publicizing it in any way. To me, there is nothing to even comment on here. Nothing you can sink your teeth into. No details that could be discussed. Even an easily-debunked concept like “Aeromine”, if you really dig, (remembering a previous press-release using I think a different name) at least has a story of how it could supposedly generate SOME power…
Sorry Pierre, but I’m keeping these triangles in the “Nothingburger”, “all accomplishments remain mysteriously in the future” category for now anyway… Wake us up when this idea develops legs.
Hi Doug: AKN is like a puzzle that contains the essential elements of an AWES with the potential to lead to something other than the dead end promised by apparently better projects.
Hello Pierre: I respectfully disagree that it “contains the essential elements” of any sort of wind energy solution. What I see does not even have the A or the W of AWE, let alone the E part. It’s not flying (not airborne), it’s not generating any electricity or energy of any kind. The fact that there’s one picture of it being lifted by a kite is meaningless - you could elevate a golf ball using a kite - doesn’t make it a wind energy system.
To call it “advanced” is so ludicrous! “Advanced” on what basis? That it makes the promoters feel like they are “important” - like they are actually DOING something? How does any honest person call something “advanced” when it doesn’t even DO anything? Before it has even come a single inch toward fulfilling its stated “advanced” purpose? The only thing “advanced” is that it is being “advanced” (promoted) on this website. The whole thing is ridiculous, in my humble opinion. Nothing but a weak version of “mass-hypnosis” and I’m surprised anyone here is falling for it by this late date!
“Advanced” can refer to the ability of kites in a network to pivot individually according to trajectories, as specified. So “Advanced” refers to some functionality, rather than a claim of type: “all roads lead to Advanced Kite Networks”.
Don’t you think it would make more sense to demonstrate this supposed 'functionality" before calling it “advanced”? So these triangles are “advanced” because someone with a previous record of bad information in a field of fake-future-news is saying these triangles will be
- controlled to simultaneously pull in various directions, and
- that this new breakthrough technology will prove so effective as an economical wind energy solution that a mile-wide version producing TeraWatts will be a recommended next step.
Personally, I’m going to say that using the word “advanced” is way ahead of any fact, and by the way, it does not look like a “kite” network to me. It looks like some cloth triangles tied together in a pattern. Maybe before we CALL it a “KITE” anything, we should see if it is capable of flying by the power of the wind at all. I see no indication so far of even that.
Time to wake up, Doug. Or shall I put it this way:
“Sleep on now, and take [your] rest: it is enough, the hour is come;” Mark14:41
These are common part types in Ag around the world.
Combine with tractor/snowcat and kite input to create
a hybrid AWE system able to power a small village.
PTO Generator shown is $2300USD; overrunning Clutch about $60USD
Generator is just one PTO attachment type. Standard pumping/milling/etc.
Previous- Generators at South Pole Station can adapt to be AWE hybrids.
Wow you guys are great at keeping the entertainment factor alive. I think I’ve pointed out before what it means to be the poster-child of “The Professor Crackpot Syndrome” in AWE. I can’t think of a more extreme example. Another great opportunity to point out a few symptoms:
- Operation based on the “look! It wiggles!” principle
- Promoter(s) must be convinced to attach a generator
- Promoter(s) are unable to attach a generator
- All progress is in the future
- Promise to power a remote location, usually an island, the more remote, the better (so nobody can see if it is working) so you of course choose “Antarctica”!
Forget Hawaii…
Forget a remote village in Alaska…
Now it’s ANTARCTICA!!!
Forget producing any electricity - you guys haven’t even shown any movement! It doesn’t even wiggle yet!!! Probably never will…
All in all, you guys are so silly, it is hard to believe anyone could make such statements. With absolutely nothing (ZERO) built or operating, you can cut-paste a photo of a generator, and hope to get credit for having developed a working wind energy system to power an outpost at the South Pole?
Wow, too bad it needs to be at the South Pole to work, but what a great excuse for you to never get anything working at all! Brilliant! Great entertainment, I don’t know what else to say. Where is the laugh-track? Is there somewhere we could place a sure bet that this will never happen?
I thought the mantra of successful startups was minimum viable product… advanced doesnt seem to fit that bill
JAL’s unique Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is Advanced Kite Network (AKN) Concepts and Research.
Functional AKN MVP comes later, on the 2030 timeline projected in 2011 by WoW-kPower Critical Path Analysis.
Ahhhh, Roger that - “2030 - Critical Path Analysis” (CPA) - yeah sure. Lots of big words and acronyms (JAL, AKN, MVP, WOW, AWE) as a substitute for any actual development, let alone power production, huh? I thought the Jalbert triangles were ready to rock and roll! (Or ready for SOMETHING…) I mean, being so “advanced” and all… So progress for the “Advanced” kite networks is now “Retarded” (slowed)? What happened?
It’s the "are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet ( ?)" fallacy.
JAL subscale testing continues; 2030 remains the upscaling timeframe.
There is lots of encouraging news in AWE, no longer being noted here.
Given posting restrictions, timely due progress is poorly shared here.
So, JAL work goes mostly unseen. Doug’s pessimism goes unchecked.
OK well, there’s this little thing about wind energy that I realize a lot of people don’t want to be bothered with, but it’s kind of important, especially when considering the production of TeraWatts: You have to generate electricity. AWE had, as a starting point, the fact that people could fly kites. The idea was, t combine flying by the power of the wind, with energy production from the same device. What you have done, under your various acronyms, for 14 years thusfar, is to occasionally fly a kite. So far, there has been no significant or promising amount of power generated. You had Wayne’s demand of inter-reeling automated kite-planes beaming power down to Earth by microwaves from the jet stream - how is that going today? Oh wait - zero work done, zero progress on that, right? Stated as the only way to do AWE, then nothing. You had “Mothra” which was an actual kite that flew - a leaky, high-aspect-ratio parafoil made of tarps that actually was briefly airborne! Congratulations on that one - no, dumping the anchoring sand off as it lifted does not count as utility-scale power output. Of course you talk about doing work directly, but have shown no way to do that either. You once had a looping kite pump a bicycle pump - again no electricity generated, no compelling or surprising result, nothing to get excited about, no further activity on that. Of course it is easy to try to blame someone else, such as the person pointing this out, but no, your lack of results in 14 years is not my fault. So please forgive my “pessimism” but what you call “pessimism” is nothing but a recitation of your track record for the last 14 years of all-talk and no results. Now you are asking us to ignore 14 years of nothing, and a few more months of nothing since you announced your latest approach using cloth triangles, but we are supposed to sit on the edge of our seats for the next 7 or 8 years, and you’ll be producing TeraWatts, right? Well our butts are getting sore from sitting on the edge of our seats! In wind energy, power production is what matters, not empty talk and broken promises. Wind ENERGY. The goal is producing energy. I guess you never got the memo on that, right? So you can blame anyone you want, and characterize mere descriptions of your lack of progress any way you want, but it is just more empty talk piled on all the previous empty talk. I expect more of the same - nothing but more empty talk, excuses, and false promises, sorry to say. Call it whatever you want.
WoW/kPower Critical Path Analysis calls for MW-scale AWE at high TRL by 2030. If all continues well, GW unit-scale AWE by 2050 and multi-TW scale, in aggregate, as the technology achieves market maturity. It will not be JAL-only, but a broad technological triumph.
The AWE Spectator is advised to sit back and enjoy R&D progress at its manifest pace.
The AWE spectator is you.
It didn’t take much for you to push out your deadline by another 20 years, adding more excuses like “If all continues well” etc. This against the backdrop of nothing yet, with only 35% of your time left to get from ~zero to “MegaWatt-scale AWE at high TRL by 2030”…
Please forgive me for asking, but what do you mean by “continues well”?
Are you saying that 14 years of producing zero significant output is “going well”? And you’re hoping to continue that rate of progress? (Which I believe you will) Sounds like you’re still “getting ready to get ready”
The parafoil Dom Jalbert invented ~70yrs ago continues to triumph, not just helping pull Airbus and Kawasaki shipping, and other such successes, but two new 2024 Olympic Events. The parafoil has now beaten the LEI (Kitepower’s pick) in all kite racing categories, now also snow-kiting (no mountain needed)-
2022 SnowKite World Cup Kharkiv - Day 2 Recap - YouTube
## 2022 SnowKite World Cup Kharkiv - Day 2 Recap
JAL, Jalbert’s original R&D company, is now reorganized for AWE R&D.
Dom’s Kite rocks. AWE is unstoppable. JAL has no cause for complaint.
Indeed parafoils and single skin power kites are amazing with their so high power-to-mass ratio.
And SkySails remains the AWE leader, going to a right direction.
In addition Advanced Kite Network projects present interesting ideas to optimize conversion and scaling. Some elements has been evoked in this topic. This is just a beginning. We are fortunate to have John to relate the elements of this project. This chance would be multiplied if we could also have Dave Santos, so as to attempt a realization with some options, by interaction between the participants of this forum and the JAL designers.