Nothing really new … Cad renderings and old prototypes videos… Not convincing
Nothing really new in all existing AWES prototypes.
Is there no sound? I didn’t hear any.
There is always something new. This video marks the grand debut of the AWEu consortium, from the same secretive insider lineage as the tarnished and retired Airborne Wind Energy Consortium (AWEC). Hundreds of millions in new AWE R&D, and maybe even the industrial future of AWE is being decided; its not a static game.
This AWEu PR is full of fresh clues and signals. Venture videos are edited to gloss all-modes gaps and other defects, that close watching disambiguates. Flight shots are full of videogrammetric data. Mine it for all its worth.
What is not new is that none of the space maximization issues are addressed. An 1 km tether leads to more than 3km² land use. So current onshore and offshore ground-based wind turbines have a long future.
They don’t have to address technical gaps. This is about corporate control of capital. What they have is enough for that.
The “smart-money” venture logic is that airspace is obviously not yet a technical bottleneck. Its better to dominate investment now, and exit at high profit before technical shortcomings kick in.
Its like Chess. AWEC-AWEu moves first, as White. All other players play Black. They must win by superior capability; the current PR mindshare battle is lost. Anything can still happen. The worst players can even end up with the best flyers, in relentless M&A rounds.
I posted this video in News. But I could be wrong as it is dated from 2018. @Tom moved it to Lounge, perhaps rightly. Indeed “something new” is not always a News and vice versa.
The website today then links to companies from the page of members:
https://airbornewindeurope.org/
https://airbornewindeurope.org/about-airborne-wind-europe/members