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Makani Power is developing Airborne Wind Turbines (AWT) to extract energy from powerful, consistent winds at altitude. Makani AWTs will produce energy at an unsubsidized real cost competitive with coal-fired power plants, the current benchmark of the lowest cost source of power.
This website highlights the rigorous small-scale testing program Makani has undertaken to demonstrate core functionality and validate performance expectations for the M1, Makani’s first utility-scale 1 MW system.
The subcomponents of Makani’s 10 kW Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) prototype. The wing flies in circles navigated by the autonomous controllers running on state of the art avionics system. Power is extracted by wing mounted rotors by slowing the wing down. Generated power is transmitted down the tether to the ground station. The bank of lights on the ground station is illuminated to dissipate excess power.
The culmination of Makani’s development program is a 1 MW system, shown here on its ground station. The M1 has a wingspan of 35 meters and will operate at altitudes between 200 and 400 meters.