Well Windy, AWE people are too dumb to try an aerostat, cuz, see, it’s such old news, so grimy and industrial, so… well. proven. Proven to reach high altitudes, proven to carry a payload, proven to withstand high winds. Nah, way way way too boring. And no patent coverage! Not so easy to soak investors! Far better to, say, break out some highly-impressive Ivy-League credentials and make your own blimp - with a tunnel going through the center to use more envelope material to take up all that space that could hold more helium! Then finally use an off-the-shelf 2.7 kW downwind turbine with a heavy inverter in the nacelle. i wonder if they took it out and moved it to the ground?. Seems like they could have saved a lot of effort just buying a blimp and hanging a windmill from it. But, as I explained, that would be too simple, too, well… logical!
Yup, Orbital is my all-time favorite hydrokinetic energy player. In fact I was close to investing in it, but it wasn’t like just buying stock, it was a bit complicated. Anyway. I think they have a good design, for a reasonable concept. It has many elements that I’ve always wondered why others haven’t used. It’s something I would come up with myself. I’d rather be able to service it on the surface, then have to dive or bring it up, and as Pierre said, currents are faster at the surface, so, ding ding, WAAAHHHH get out of the way!