Where will these power plants be located?
If tropospheric winds are the target for a kite power plant, then it must obviously lie underneath the jet stream which meanders over the mid-latitudes of the upper and lower hemispheres. However, for a system aimed at the 1000m level, which we anticipate to be operational in the next 5 to 10 years, only a large open area and controlled airspace will be required. Proximity to a populated area is also desirable but with the advent of high voltage DC transmission systems, this will likely become less important. Large kite power plants can be built in areas with plentiful area and airspace and the energy transmitted to the nearest grid connection, a strategy already well developed under the proposed DESERTEC project. [9]
In this case, areas such as Australia, Canada, USA, North Africa, Middle East, Russia and China are just a few of the suitable locations for large scale kite power plants. As with conventional wind, offshore is also viewed as an interesting location for kite power plants. Compared to on land, the wind speed increases even more sharply with altitude due to the lack of obstacles to slow it down. Also, as a good portion of the world is covered in water, there is plenty of space, and installations could be located relatively close to populated coastal areas. The key consideration for an offshore kite power system is that it could be built on a floating barge, which is connected to the seafloor with a cable. This would drastically increase the potential locations suitable for offshore wind power, as the normal sea depth and seabed restrictions would no longer apply.