Who would believe any of this endless “news of the future”, at this point?
“before an AWES takes commercial flight, an aircraft must meet aviation safety certification requirements.”
***Sounds like an endless excuse after 14 years of AWE hype.
“It must also be financially viable to attract investors.”
***It must be financially viable to be worth building and running, like any energy project.
How about:
“It must be financially viable to be financially viable”?
Or just:
“It must be financially viable”. So, is it?
“This also helps avoid schedule overruns and getting-to-market delays.”
***What has AWE become, but one huge, ongoing “getting to market delay”?
“Now in the design phase, a commercial prototype UAV is planned.”
Mmmm-hmmm, sounds pretty repetitive to me…
“It will be deployable in onshore wind farms, especially in remote locations where infrastructure makes electricity an expensive commodity.”
***Translation: It will not be competitive with other energy sources, including even standard wind turbines, meanwhile we’ll be searching for a good reason to “install” one anywhere.
This has become “news from the past”. @Rodread has wisely classified this “news” under “coverage” category.
You’re being harsh.
This is an exciting time.
We’re hopefully going to get performance data from the new prototype at AWEC
It was way more exciting 14 years ago…
The main choice was whether to immediately harness the jet stream, or quickly and deftly render those dreaded “windtowers” obsolete. Cuz, well, ya know, “kites”…
hopefully… going to…
All AWE news remains perpetually set in future-tense.
Funny, I just got an email from Windpower Engineering and Development using this same article as a teaser.
“Oh, nice AWE is actually in a wind energy publication.” I thought. Then I started noticing everything looked familiar. Oh yeah - same article from last week…
“Future of airborne wind energy systems depends on safety and efficiency”…
Well duh! I mean, of course any wind energy system needs to be economically efficient, which at least implies mechanical and aerodynamic efficiency. And safety - well of course it has to be reasonably safe or who would want to use it? But of course, the real progress remains “in the future”. Meanwhile, after well over a decade of hype, is there anything regularly powering the grid today?