Wind can be an unpredictable and unstable source of power, and high in the sky where it is more stable, it's difficult to exploit. Airborne wind turbines could provide a solution to this problem, but although the idea has been around since the 19th century, it's never been exploited on a larger scale. California's Makani Power aims to change that with its innovative flying wing turbine design. Wing 7 is essentially a cross between a UAV and a wind turbine that's tethered to a ground station from which it ascends to a height of around 1,300 feet (400m) and flies autonomously, generating up to 20-kilowatt of power in a 20mph (35km/h) wind.



Wing 7 is being tested in a series of flights this year and, with the backing of funding from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and private investors including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Makani Power hopes to develop a 1-megawat flying turbine - the Makani M1 - that's capable of operating at 1,800 ft (550m) altitude and bring it to market in 2015.

The video below presents a test flight made in July, that fully demonstrated Wing 7's power generation and autonomous flight modes:

Source: Makani Power via Popular Mechanics.

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