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What are some known AWE methods?
(without yet asking about the economies or efficiencies of a method)

Following a lead of Domina Jalbert as he confided in Tal Streeter, the world of water kites (paravanes) is as valid a kite concern as the world of air kites. Kites "flown" in water depths or air heights --for the purpose of generating electricity--has drawn the attention of scientists, technicians, commercial leaders, and recreationists.    What is seemingly just for air kites has kin analogues in paravane or underwater kite structures and systems.  Underwater paravanes anchored to shores of rivers, ocean currents, dam releases, tidal flows,  etc. are potential sources of water-kite-based hydroelectricity.

Large categories have been distinguished: linearAWE and cyclicAWE. And then hybrids.
                                                          (not yet comprehensive)

Rod Read would like to add some possibilities and configurations:
 March 22, 2012                             
Discuss: AWES5864
Generator position 
==on top of a wind tracking/bending stem able to resist torsion.  (as in Daisy generator)
whipped, on bow ends. (whip and bow gen)
==seaborne generator systems (pulling yachts/catamaran + turbine (free roaming and tethered to seabed)/bag-squashing)
==airborne between contra-rotating ring generator sets
==mid air slung between high terrain peaks
=multiple spread out generators set out in a ring, band driven as one big shaft axis. (this arrangement would benefit from tilting away from wind or actively lengthening upwind tethers) 
==water surface boundary layer generators spun by contra-rotating kite and water kite sets
Solar-energy can be used to maintain temp and therefore gas pressure inside dark plastic bag structures. 
Kites can lift or be controllable solar reflectors
Motion types:
in rotated tethers... :
==Multiple Tethers to linked kites in a set can pull around a ring (offset at a radius from the axis of kite set rotation) 
==Multiple radially linked torsion sausage balloons  are run around generation axis rails / pulley points.
           The aim of both of these systems is transferring torsional energy through traditionally flimsy materials by increasing rotating diameter.

== Short-stroke/short-recovery pumping cycles  AirborneWindEnergy/message/9316


Combinatorial arrangements
==Spinning rings with kite sets turning a corkscrew pipe to raise water for hydro electricity.
==Offshore generation used to make hydrogen and oxygen at depth, stored in bags.
  • Generator position
    • Generators lofted with electricity stored and/or perhaps used aloft.
    • Generators lofted with electricity sent to ground via conductors or beams.  What might be conducted could be electricity, chemicals, light, laser, heated liquids, vibrations, ... 
    • Quick sketch: torsionmultipleblade.jpg  
    • Generators lofted with energy sent to ground via microwave.
    • Generators kept on the ground while mechanical energy of dynamic kite systems operate generators.
    • Store kite-obtained energy in various forms only to later use the energy for work or for generating electricity.
    • Generators aloft and on the ground in one system.
    • The discussions about groundgen versus flygen seem to be blind to types of groundgen that do not involve cyclic reeling-in and reeling-out (and thus not the drum wear on tethers; some even avoid drum-hold of tether altogether); and some of these are short-stroke and some long-stroke operations.   JoeF      March 23, 2012.  AWES5873

  • Solar-energy
    • Kite part surfaces made with double-purposed solar-radiation converting structures (convert radiation to electricity).
    • Areas on earth that have persistent clouds or fog: kytoons flown above the clouds that are made with solar-converting textiles and thin solar-cell films may provide an electrical source for practical uses.
    • v
  • Motion types:
    • Kite line motion; motions of the tethers
      • Oscillations and cycles
      • Airborne piezoelectric conversion with the very line having a piezoelectric structure
      • "hunting turbine"  (Dave Santos)
      • Lateral  rail boating
      • Out-and-in cycling, pulsating tension controlled by angle of attack changes or by porosity changes ...via smart programs or reactionary robots
      • Line in loop driven around itself
      • Line in loop with fixed kite point in lateral motion driving loop through ground generators
      • Rotated tethers. Flex-shafts, torsion tubes, torsion sausage balloons, etc. Tether flex-shaft may be shaped or crusted or saturated with spiral or props to cause rotation. Skyhooks vary for this family of AWE: kites, kytoons, LTA balloons, terrain high points.  The lifters might rotate and transfer rotation via tether rotation (as opposed to transfer by fanBelt or loop).  See potentials in Selsam and SpiralAirfoil for niche AWECS for either gen on ground or gen lofted, adjustments needed.
      • Line torsion, rotating the kite line to transfer energy. An extreme here is the rotating ribbon kite.
      • Crosswinding a tether which tether is a wing itself for full rotation via the Magnus-effect; drive the tether in circles to keep the rotation of the tether going in one direction.
      • Controlled direction to rotate levers (circles or left-to-right)
      • Oscillating shape of kite line to achieve variable line windage for tugging grounded generator.
      • Cable wave energy tapped by linear alternators. Springs aiding in maintaining resonant frequencies.
      • Wind-cable power conversion systems
      • Line is made sturdy to transfer direct torsion to ground generator. Torsion is achieve by propellers. Torsion-sturdied line or rod or tube or tensegrity tower may be held by lofted lifter or not.
      • Tipping boom with downwind generator axis. Ballasted tipping boom drawing tips from crosswind oscillating kites or FlipperWings.
      • High-sweeping of  loop legs. See

        U.S. Pat. No.  3,987,987       Filed: Jan. 28, 1975

         Oct. 26, 1976 SELF-ERECTING WINDMILL

        [Inventors: Peter R. Payne, Rte. 5 Box 282,
        Annapolis, Md. 21401; Charles
        McCutchen, 5213 Acacia Ave.,
        Bethesda, Md. 20014


  • Kite line "laundry"
    • On  devices that rotate, flutter, jiggle, contract-release, oscillate
    • From the main kiteline, hang sublines with active devices that generate electricity either directly or by virtue of transmitted kinetic energy
    •  Cable-suspended resonant wind engine
    • Airborne piezoelectric conversion with laundry structure using piezoelectric effect
  • One-wire no-earth-return transmission
    • AWES6560
    • Optical fiber waveguide
    • Longitudinal oscillations
  • One-wire lightning grounding and energy capture
  • Wire-free power transmission             AWES6563
    • Capture energy aloft and beam the energy via laser or microwave or sound or light
    • Capture energy aloft and drop stored-energy packets to earth or transfer the packets to other aircraft.
    • Make things aloft and then glide or drop the made things to earth or give them to other aircraft.
    • Live aloft and consume the aloft-captured energy.
    • v
  • Kite's tail
    • Part can be spinning; that spinning can run a small generator for work on the kite, for charging batteries, or for sending electricity to ground for use or storage. Flutter, pulsation, oscillation, spinning, and alternations (size, porosity, shape, position) may be mechanically or smartly attained to provide changes leading generator drives.
    • Any of the methods of morphing a kite's wing body (see) or its line or its line laundry (see) could be applied to tails.
    • Tails may be free or constrained to a ground generator which position is weathervaned or is moved by tail forces or by ground-control forces to provide differences that could be transformed to making electricity.
    • Airborne piezoelectric conversion where tail structures able to use the piezoelectric effect
  • Kite motion:
    • Rotating spanwise kite
    • Rotating vertical axis kite
    • Rotating windwise axis kite
    • Up and down
    • Large circles to drive levers on the ground
    • Figure of eights to drive line position to drive levers on the ground
    • Free-gliding kite hang gliders (pilot's falling mass moors and tugs the kite through short kite lines during free-flight) mounted with generator and propeller are being considered for generating electricity to charge on-board batteries for use in extending flight range by motor when needed. Researcher: Taras Kiceniuk, Jr. and others.
    • Driving rocker levers
    • Driving circular rings with kites attached to the circumference of the ring
    • Wafting
    • Wave pulsation (air or water)
    • Shape changing by inflation pressure oscillations to produce tug variations
    • Pulsating porosity
    • Pneumatic shape pulsations
    • Reverse method developed in http://www.google.com/patents?id=o750AAAAEBAJ
    • Reverse invention for water-kite electricity generation: UNDULATING SURFACE DRIVING SYSTEM
    • Shape morphing via "cavexing" [Faust]
    • Shape morphing of airfoil by one of many methods
    •  Binary ways in AWES:    Pulsation, oscillation, on-off tugs, pull-relax-pull, some-none, open-close, yes-no, light-dark, small-big, short-long, left-right, binary, up-down, this way and that way, surround and pause, out-in, large-small, engage-disengage, on-off, pitch-less-pitch, ptich and pitch more, pitch up and pitch down,  cycling, cycle and reverse cycle, cycle and cycle again,  intermittent action, buffeting, lash and unlash, whip and unwhip, fluttering, vibrating, interrupt, valving, shunting, open-close, lock-unlock,  porous-non-porous, weak-strong, tense and then slack, stiff-bendy, coil-recoil, taut-loose, smooth-rough, faster-slower, moving-non-moving, twirling-non-twirling, more-less, clockwise-counterclockwise, hard-soft, intake-outtake, expand-contract, inhale-exhale, grab-release, push-release, bend-release, fill-empty, connect-disconnect, expose-hide, tighten-loosen, sloshing, hot-cold, wet-dry, static-ground, touch-untouch, aileron up-then down, flap up then down, flip-flip, fore-aft, back-forth, give-take, push-pull, connect-disconnect, energize-off, power-depower, center-off-center, hole-no-hole, upwind-downwind, roll-unroll, ruddering, brake-release, friction on-friction-off, rotate-pause, reel in-let-out, bulbous-slim, telescope out-back-in, wide-less-wide, aspect-ratio increase-decrease,  twist-untwist, stress-relax, porous-not-porous, compress-decompress, flexing-relaxing, one-direction-then-another (any rotational amount differential), raise-lower, wax-wane, reel-unreel, ebb-flow, hard-soft, inflating-deflating, wave-unwave, increase-decrease, more amplitude-less amplitude, oneway-otherway, "cavex-de-cavex" , balance-imbalance, pump-release, over-under,  yank-pause, tensioning-retensioning, tension-compression, firm-flaccid, yo-yo, symmetrical-asymmetrical,  etc.  Use such binary opposites to produce  alternating tugs to drive a grounded electric generator. jitter-non-jitter, turn-unturn, swerve this way then that, veering/backing, bobbing, this phase and then that phase, switching on and off, behavior alternation, reel-in and reel-out, pay out and in, open pores and close pores, shift, shunting, shifting, tip left pull then pull right, lift and drop, jerking, spasmodic jerking, stretch/shrink, inflate/deflate, elongate/contract, ripple/smooth, wind/unwind, yo-yo out/yo-yo in, program/de-program, fast/slow, increase pressure in inflated member and decrease pressure in that inflated member, inhauling and outhauling, veer out and veer in,  reef and ____, play out and play in, haul in and haul out, furl and unfurl, able and disable, shortening and lengthening, undulations in tether tension with cycle short or long, compress and release, wet and dry, unpack and deploy, morph and unmorph, codec (compressor/decompressor), damped pendulum reaching threshold for trigger for flip-flop of directions, buckling and unbuckling, sleep-awake cycles, traction step and release step, power-cost, increase area and then decrease area, power phase and cost phase, distort/release, stretch and shrink, buckle and unbuckle, weave and unweave, tangle and untangle, spread and close, flatten and unflatten, wrinkle and smooth, pulse and pause, snap and unsnap, clip and unclip, contact and discontact, place and remove, hug and release, arc and straighten, pilot helper or not,  inlet air and outlet air, passive and active, ascend and descend, place and displace, pressurize and depressurize, press and release, Poisson effect: increase and decrease interior pressure to obtain shortened length and return of prior length, use temperature to increase length and decrease temperature to shorten, close/open, collapse/reopen, cravat/reopen, stall/unstall, pitch up/pitch down, roll/unroll, yaw left/yaw right, trim/de-trim, mount/dis-mount, position/de-position, surge-brake, load-unload, brake-release, flapping permit-stop flapping, sheet out and sheet in, increase gap and decrease gap, charge and discharge, activate nano muscles and relax nano muscles, spread-narrow, button and unbutton, act and stop acting, squeeze and release the squeeze,  wrap and unwrap, reefing and dereefing, arming and disarming, extending and retracting, stabilize and destabilize, firm and upset, lift and drag, lift and drift, drag and release, anchor and remove anchor, configure and disfigure, install and uninstall, run and stop, pinch and release, cut and mend, tear and fix, spray and sublimate, make and unmake, attach and detach, pile and spread, fan spread and close fan,  breathing in and breathing out, slide one way and then the other, fork and unfork, divide and unite, flutter and damp flutter, wobble and damp wobble, wing warping on and off or increase and decrease, smart wing morphing, squeeze and relax, wicking and drying, wetting and drying, self-foul and self-unfoul, foul and unfoul, fetch and let go, veering and hauling, night operate and day operate, cuff and uncuff, dimple and undimple, bind and unbind, mangle and unmangle, pucker and unpucker, fly and unfly, tie and untie, knot and unknot, form and deform, form and reform, dam and undam, gas release into bladder and then recompression of the gas,

    •             Add to this list:   Send note to editor. Thanks.   Extend this into Research at "Binary Actions"

    • Musical kites point to fluttering mechanics that can feed electric generation
    • Part or entire kite structured to use the piezoelectric effect
  • Combinatorial arrangements
    • Kytoon sky anchor or lifter
    • Lifter kites holding curtains or sail towers saturated with turbines
    • Cable between mountains or hills over a valley; cables hold wind-driven forms
    • Line-held rotating surfaces (line axis or perpendicular to line), wind turbines (on line or draped)
    • Surfaces of the kite system may be solar-energy converters
    • Collections of lifter kites lofting vertical curtains of wind-maintaining rotation forms can coupled with ground-based generators receiving torques from above. Kytoons could drape wind-rotated forms on mooring lines.
    • As mentioned in Richard Miller's Without Visible Means of Support  and restated by Dr. Paul MacCready ...and experienced in some land and water craft, there is a sector of dual-body systems that permit directing forces to advantages. Miller and MacCready pointed to two varied kites coupled in differential wind environments but fully lofted in the atmosphere. The smart coupling and dynamics may provide dynamic soaring or possibly be utilized to tap some of the forces for generating electricity for sustaining flight of the system or stored..  Likewise, in water or the interface of water and air, coupled kites of either sort may do work when properly arranged.
    • Air kite tacking water kite or boat: then have part of the water situation be with a water turbine driving electric generation.
    • Laddermill strategy            Ockels              TUDelft
    • Kite powered windmill, oscillating kite-powered tensioned loop. Use any type of kite for niche purposes. Use fully limp parafoils or stiffened kites or hard-surfaced airfoils or kiteplanes or kited gliders. Consider letting the kite or kiteplane be remotely controlled or smartly robot controlled, or even live-human controlled in the air for giving pilot practice to recreational or professional pilots. As the pilot guides the kite from side to side in the wind window, s(he) gets flying practice and entertainment ..while pulling the bi-line tether (loop) through ground-based generators; the loop can be very long and the flying path can be wide or not. In each power change of direction of the kite, an increase in apparent wind occurs and the potential of tension to pull the loop line through ground generators permits high chance to generate electricity. All of this can be robotized.  If the kite or kiteplane is lighter than air, then the kytoon can remain up in the high altitudes during wind lulls. Universal joints on the ground can permit wind direction to change greatly while still driving the same ground-based generators.  The ground-based generators could be underground to save on real estate grab; or the generators could be raised on a roof while the ground remains for other real estate uses.
    • Air kites in combination with water kites (tether, fixed coupling, RC, smart, oscillating)
    • Morphing kytoons  using some of the ideas of the http://www.fuellessflight.com  while taping the motions up and down for electricity generating
    • Kytoon gas expansion and contraction used to drive generator. Raise and lower the kytoon. Or raise and lower lifter kites while lifting balloon whose cavexors are couple with electric generators
    • As manned-kite-glider glides: let propeller set on the free-flying kite be driven by the ambient apparent wind; let that propeller drive an electric generator to charge batteries onboard. Later: Use the charged batteries to drive the propeller for extending flight.   Regenerative charging. Taras Kiceniuk, Jr.
    • Flutter of underwater kite or fishing lure could generate electricity to light the lure to attract fish (now many lighted lures use tiny batteries; proposed: go direct: let the kiting flutter of the lure generate the electricity to light the lure; look Mom, no batteries!). Such are patented:
      Electronic fishing lure
      US Pat. 6457275 - Filed Nov 2, 2000 - Pro-Troll, Inc.
      US 6457275 Bl (45) Date of Patent: Oct., 2002 (54) ELECTRONIC FISHING LURE (75)
      Inventor: Cecil R. Spurgeon, Richmond, CA (US) (73) Assignee: Pro-Troll, ...

      [APPLICATION] Electronic flasher fishing lure
      US Pat. 10844687 - Filed May 13, 2004 -
      6457275 Bl (the '275 patent) which teaches that when the voltage generator or
      emitter is attached to a trolling lure which experiences jerky movement ...


    • Reverse what is known in flapping mechanical wings and ornithopter technology to have the wind drive generators
    • alter airfoil near twitch point to get large changes of direction, (camber changing, rear of airfoil morphing, interior of airfoil camber changing)
    • Wind operated noise making devices converted to driving electric generators
    • Air kite system tows water-based electricity-generating turbine around the ocean. The electricity is stored and used later.  Locate wind paths where reverse direction may happen. Control kite system's tacking to increase power.
    •  Use kite mechanical energies to pump water for later use to obtain hydroelectricity.
    •  Wind Dam
    • Turbines on cables
    • Double-kite coupled systems to play the two kites in their ever-distinct wind environments in order to get a net system pulsation for use in generating electricity. Smart controlling will be needed.
    • Reel out for power stroke. Depower kite. Easier reel in.     David Lang
    • Fly Gen
    • Buggy
    • Sail
    • Power Gen   Peter Lynn
    • Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. Kites dragging a electricity-generating turbine through the ocean's water provides renewable hydroelectricity.
  • Atmospheric electricity and kite systems    Tease1.   wikiAE   Distinguish between capturing lightning and the different challenge of harnessing for utility the electrical potential differences in atmospheric layers and ground. Could kite systems be designed to capture and store the potential difference?
  • Electrodynamic tethers       Wiki      
  • merry-go-round generator     Kite Wind Generator, or KiteGen
  • See also:
  • Dave Santos:
    "The latest "disruptive" tech is a super-cheap simple self-tacking sail under a stable lifter kite yanking on spring-loaded cranks or pistons; anyone can do it!"
  • Let recreational hang glider training double as an electricity-generation system. Let the piloted kite out into ambient wind. The pilot spends 3 hours doing figure eights in the sky in a stiff wind. The pilot controls the kite into figures and pulsations. The wind itself will change during the hours. Use the line tension changes and direction changes to generate electricity on the ground.  The pilot has fun, gets flight training, and generates electricity all in an afternoon of being up in the air flying. The pilot gets exercise, recreation, good view, entertainment, and a chance to charge some batteries or give energy to a grid.
  • Wind may lift and drag air kites moored to water turbines that are fixed or mobile. Move cargo by kite tug even while the tug turns water turbines making electricity; arrive with charged giant batteries or ultracapacitors; off-load cargo and the gained electricity. The wind and water are there inviting humans to draw upon the huge renewable energy without pollution. 
  • Heavier-than-water water kites "flown" in water currents with water turbines
  • Lighter-than-water water kites "flown" in water currents with water turbines
  • Pulsating kytoon drives ground-based dynamo.  Charge batteries of ground-based home or vehicle. No fixed tower needed as windmills.  Kytoon stays aloft as wind stops or changes direction. Use part of the wind's energy to cause line pulsation.
  • http://www.main.org/polycosmos/silicbar/sailscrw.htm   Air-hydro complex.
  • Robotics.   http://www.main.org/polycosmos/faustweb/faustex.htm
  • http://tinyurl.com/PeterLynn888TetheredFreeFlying      August 2003
  • Individual actuation of struts and tensional edges in tensegrity structures to get morphing that could drive aerodynamic changes that could drive electric generators. "Butterfly effect" where small changes  trigger large changes.  See also this.
  • http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=6829.msg152791;boardseen  Wires in earth's magnetic field  
  • Fly kite systems that are both moving and able to convert solar radiation to storable charges; fly the kite system above the clouds to receive wind and solar radiation.
  • http://www.kitegen.com/index_en.html  KiteGen
  • Yo-yo long cycle
  • Yo-yo short cycle
  • Undulations in tether tension with cycle short or long
  • Vibrating tether
  • aeolian technology
  • Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT)
  • Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT)
  • Wind farms    (analogical kite system wind farms using upper strong winds)
  • Nonaxial wind turbines
  • Tensile-based wind systems.      Tethered wind energy systems.
  • virtual variable span wing, morphable wings, shape-changing wings, smart-shape-changing wings, etc.
  • Airborne piezoelectric conversion
  • Having the kite system operate ground-based piezoelectric effect assemblies
  • No-tether-to-ground jet-stream-involved dual-aircraft EKS AWE  Power beam energy from above. Use differential momentums of two aloft locations aloft-coupled smartly; one location stays in the jet stream; the coupled location is out of the jet stream. Massively-smart controls tap the system for some energy converted to power beams which energy is sent to receivers on the ground or sea or to active aircraft.  June 15, 2009: Contact: Editor@UpperWindpower.com
  • Darrieus beads on cables    M389   Consult Darin Selby.  Contra-rotating sets of Darrieus beads on cables, perhaps in urbanAWE.
  • Use kite systems to pump water upstream in a river. Pump the water from lower end to higher stations. Use the water drop of the river to drive hydroelectric turbines.  Similar for high ponds and lakes or artificial reservoirs.
  • Spread of two coupled kites pulls center of central bridged-held line; bring the coupled kites toward each other to release downwardly the center of central bridged-held line; the central-bridge-held line pulls and releases in cycles to drive sprag-clutched  ground gen. The working line could be springed tensed or worked from another third spreading kite that is timed rightly. This method has not been demonstrated yet.  JpF March 2010.     M1389      M1392
  • Shiva-1      arch of tarp kites AWES  
    Update from Austin (Soft Rivet Technology (TM))
  • Line rider automatically reciprocates

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Alternatives for the aircraft form niche solutions: kytoons, kytoon and kite, balloons, balloon and kytoon, variDrogue and balloon, variDrogue and kytoon, kites, LTA Spiralairfoils smartly morphed, kytoon lifted multiple rotors, etc.

Advance this into very long and tall train systems. See 4T