Power Generating Super Kites

If Saul Griffith has his way, the next time someone tells you to go fly a kite, it just might be in order to generate energy for your house.  That's not exactly correct, but Griffith, who has invented dozens of products and co-founded numerous companies, has a plan to use giant kites harnessed to turbines to generate clean energy from the wind.  Unlike ground based wind power, high altitude wind never ceases to blow.  Griffith lays out his audacious plan in this video from the yearly Ted conference.  Griffith is not alone in his pursuit of this idea, which is also being developed by the Italian company, Kite Gen.  Kite Gen uses a flock of super kites to turn a giant revolving structure on the ground.  Each Kite Gen energy mill would produce the equivalent energy of a nuclear power plant.  The initial prototype tests seem promising.  Meanwhile, Dutch scientists have shown how a 10 sq. meter kite can easily make 10 Kw.  As the kite is pushed upward by the wind it pulls a cable, which turns a turbine.  When it runs out of cable, the kite is pulled down and then relaunched.  Using energy to drag down the kite is not very efficient, so the next step is to create The Laddermill, which uses special "kite planes" that ascend like a kite, but descend like a plane, creating constant rotational force on the turbine below.  The high altitude winds of the troposphere are waiting to be tapped.  The race is on.