The revolutionary technology is operated by Skysails Power Indian Ocean. This is a joint venture between the Hamburg-based company Skysails Power and the Mauritian company IBL Energy. After completion of the installation work and commissioning, the grid operator CEB approved the feed-in. This confirms the grid conformity of the system. The Republic of Mauritius aims to achieve a share of 60 per cent green electricity in the electricity mix by 2030.

Skysails Power

How the kite works

Based on the results of the first project, Skysails intends to introduce the technology in East Africa and the Indian Ocean together with IBL. This is how the system works: Flying kite wind turbines use the high-altitude wind at up to 400 metres. To generate energy, an automatically controlled flying kite rises up through the wind. As it gains altitude, it unwinds a cable from a winch on the ground. The resulting tractive force drives a generator in the winch, which produces electricity.

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Once the rope has reached its maximum length of 800 metres, the autopilot steers the kite into a neutral position with minimal drag and lift. The generator, which uses only a fraction of the previously generated energy for this, acts as a motor and reels in the rope. The system repeats this process continuously and lets the kite fly at an altitude of 200 to 400 metres. The energy generated by the flying wind turbine can be fed into the power grid, stored in batteries or consumed directly. (mfo)