Ship kite propulsion system

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Kites as main propulsion systems for ships OCEANERGY has designed a kite propulsion system for ships – as the main propulsion system. Our kite propulsion systems allow to fully navigate ships on all wind courses, upwind and downwind, including changes of direction. With this, the ship can fully navigate. An auxiliary electric propulsion system is only used as an emergency back up and to navigate close to harbors. We have built a prototype of the kite propulsion system. It is still in small scale, able to handle kites up to 80 m2. It has undergone an extensive test program at OCEANERGY’s Kite Test Centre, which we operate in windy Cape Town (South Africa). The kite propulsion system consists of two main components, – our unique kite control system, including a pilot cockpit and artificial intelligence (AI) electronic control – the kite itself: our low-weight yet high-load RES Kites. Our high-load RES Kites Our high-load RES Kits are equally unique and world’s first. These kites can handle up to 10x more load than existing low-weight kites in the market. Again, this translates directly into power and hydrogen with maximum MW output and then lowest H2 LCOE (levelized cost of energy). Advantages of a kite over other means to harvest wind Kites have several advantages over other technologies to harvest wind energy, such as for instance sails, Flettner rotors, or rotating wind turbines. All these “old technologies” have in common that they are attached to masts, which develop torque at their base, leading to scaling problems.