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World’s first megawatt-level airborne 'windmill' feeds power to grid
(interestingengineering.com)
Is it able to fly in high winds?
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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It would be a pretty significant design flaw if not.
You would think so but even normal ground-fastened wind turbines shut off when winds get too strong.
This being somewhat of an aircraft I absolutely expect them having to land it before storms roll in.
If you land it facing up- or downwards and deflate the balloon segments it would probably be fairly flat and compact for storage.
somewhat of an aircraft
I'm imagining this is more like a kite. The thing still needs a tether to give th power back, and you don't want it to have an engine itself as that would take away the power you generated
Absolutely. Maybe a poor choice of words on my part. My intention was to state that this is not a thing you simply hang out in the wind and leave, but instead a vehicle that needs to be controlled to stay within its operational envelope.
I can imagine problems like tethers or lines getting crossed when the vehicle makes fast turns due to wind shear or frequent direction changes. You probably can't operate it in those conditions.
Even an unpowred glider is a type of aircraft
Hell yeah can't wait to fly my own powerkite.
How often does it need to be reached with helium?
I imagine it has some portion of leakage through the material and it's a lot of friggen helium, which is already in dwindling supply.