Airborne solar wind energy systems (ASWES)

[Windy_Skies]

@PierreB

Explain this to the author.

The author should explain to the reader why he chose that altitude. All he wrote about that is:

The main problem with photovoltaic energy is that sunlight can be obscured by clouds, which makes electrical production intermittent and uncertain. But above the cloud cover, the sun shines all day, every day. Anywhere above the planet, there are very few clouds at an altitude of 6 km—and none at all at 20 km. At those heights, the light comes directly from the Sun, as there are no shadows and hardly any diffusion by the atmosphere. As the sky loses its blue color, direct illumination becomes more intense: the concentration of solar energy results in more effective conversion, and hence higher yields.1

The footnote is not relevant to the altitude claim and does not give a direct link to any laboratory study talked about in the footnote.

The author has a narrow focus of research, not including atmospheric science or hydrogen production it seems. I have not been able to find any study by him anyway to find the reasoning for any chosen altitude.

https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/jean-francois-guillemoles

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jean-Francois-Guillemoles

Mixed Reaction to a Novel Balloon-Based Device for Storing Solar Power Above...

@PierreB

This is an answer: to extrapolate from this can give a preliminary estimation of the weight of a longer cable carrying more power.

You’d first have to research the feasibility of using higher voltage cables, the length of the cables, and the power you would like to transmit, all of which can make an order of magnitude difference, if you would like to use a power cable at all.

The first two of those questions can be answered with literature research, so can be done at any time. Knowledge about that can also be helpful to any other architecture so would be good to do anyway, no matter what you think about this concept.