Niche Strategies to Introduce Kite-Based Airborne Wind Energy
Kite-based airborne wind energy systems are new high-tech systems that provide sustainable wind energy. Instead of using a wind turbine, these systems use a kite to generate energy. Commercializing such new high-tech systems is a risky strategy, the failu
- PDF / 518,838 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 5 Downloads / 194 Views
Niche Strategies to Introduce Kite-Based Airborne Wind Energy Linda M. Kamp, J. Roland Ortt and Matthew F. A. Doe
Abstract Kite-based airborne wind energy systems are new high-tech systems that provide sustainable wind energy. Instead of using a wind turbine, these systems use a kite to generate energy. Commercializing such new high-tech systems is a risky strategy, the failure rate is high. This chapter identifies barriers that block large-scale diffusion of kite-based airborne wind energy systems and specific niche strategies to deal with these barriers. The results are based upon literature research and interviews with six academic and industry experts active in the field of airborne wind energy. We identified the most important barriers to large-scale implementation of airborne wind energy. We show how particular barriers, such as the lack of knowledge of the technology and the lack of support and investment opportunities, interact and together block large-scale production and diffusion. The second result is that several niche strategies can be identified to tackle the barriers in this field. The “geographic niche strategy”, the “demo, experiment and develop niche strategy” and the “educate niche strategy” are identified as good strategies to introduce the kite-based systems. The chapter ends with a discussion of these niche strategies and how they relate to previous research into introduction of sustainable energy technologies.
27.1 Introduction This chapter focuses on airborne wind energy systems and explores how specific niche strategies can be selected for introducing these systems by analysing barriers to their large-scale implementation. Airborne wind energy (AWE) is a cluster of technologies with the ability to extract wind power by using airborne elements. How the wind energy is converted into Linda M. Kamp () · J. Roland Ortt · Matthew F. A. Doe Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Jaffalaan 5, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 R. Schmehl (ed.), Airborne Wind Energy, Green Energy and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1947-0_27
665
666
Linda M. Kamp, J. Roland Ortt and Matthew F. A. Doe
(predominantly) electrical energy is what differentiates the technologies in the cluster, as different mechanisms are applied to lift the systems into the air and convert wind energy into electrical energy [3]. In this chapter we focus on one particular AWE configuration: kite-based traction power systems. A serious problem with radically new high-tech systems in general is that it takes long before large-scale diffusion starts [27]. That is particularly true for sustainable energy provision systems such as biomass gasifiers [34, 40], wind turbines [21] or solar PV [19, 39]. An explanation for the time span between invention and largescale diffusion can be found by looking at barriers. Many barriers have to be faced before large-scale diffusion is possible. A way to deal with these barriers is to introd
Data Loading...
