Sea Kites
Minesto, a spin off from Saab (the airplane and automaker that was recently sold to high performance car maker Spyker), has come up with a creation that will potentially change the way we capture energy from the ocean.
Currently there are turbines in the ocean, that act as large underwater windmills, capturing the energy provided by the ocean. Another creation, are the generators put near coastlines using wave energy. Now another — the sea kite, as Popular Science outlined this past Friday.
Attached to a tether, the sea kite uses the ‘stream energy’ generated by the ocean, which in studies have been proven to be reliable and consistent. The kite has been shown to provide up to 500 kilowatts of power, though the video provided only shows a toy train running off of it.
I am, as I believe many others are, glad to see this type of innovation and creation exist. While the recent CapeWind project has had criticisms based on “visual impact” and other things of that nature, the sea kite will have none, other than a “don’t dive here” zone…which is fine with me.
All in all, bravo Minesto, bravo.
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