Image: KiteGen Research

The Italian firm KiteGen Research is developing a generator that harnesses the wind through kites. As a kite flies into the air, it unspools a cord that cranks the turbine. Carina Storrs writes in Popular Science:

The company developed a prototype that flies 200-square-foot kites to altitudes of 2,600 feet, where wind streams are four times as strong as they are near ground-based wind turbines.

As the kite’s tether unspools, it spins an alternator that generates up to 40 kilowatts. Once the kite reaches its peak altitude, it collapses, and motors quickly reel it back in to restart the cycle. This spring, KiteGen started building a machine to fly a 1,500-square-foot kite, which it plans to finish by 2011, that could generate up to three megawatts—enough to power 9,000 homes.

Link | Company Website

What on (or out of) Earth could have destroyed this wind turbine in Lincolnshire, UK? In a strange incident, half a dozen residents reported mysterious glowing orbs in the sky before the turbine was wrecked.

Matthew Moore of Telegraph has the story of the incident that baffled engineers:

“It sounds unbelievable but actually we don’t have any explanation at the moment,” said Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, the energy company which owns the wind farm at Conisholme near Louth.

At least half a dozen Lincolnshire residents reported seeing the orange-yellow spheres, which some witnesses claimed were trailing octopus-like “tentacles”.

(Photo: Newsteam)

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