Now it’s the kites that can power New York

It seems that high-flying kites can be used to harness power from high-altitude winds to power New York. This has been concluded from researchers from the Carnegie Institution and California State University and it has been validated by using 28 years of data from the National Centre for Environmental Prediction and the Department of Energy. The researchers have found out that the region best suited for harvesting this energy align with population centers in the eastern US and East Asia. But it has also been noted that the fluctuation wind strength still presents a challenge to harness this energy on a full scale.

Several technologies have been proposed to harvest this type of energy including kite-like turbines that would be floated to the altitude of the jet streams at an altitude of 20,000 – 50,000 feet and will be capable of transmitting up to 40 mega watts of power to the ground via the tethers attached to them. But sadly this will not be starting right away as there is still further research to be done before the technology is feasible for large-scale electricity generation.
[Mongabay]