Energy from the Wind: Land-Based but also Flying Wind Turbines

Recent years have seen an increasing focus on electricity generation from renewable sources. Among these, wind power has been the one that has had the greatest growth and attention both at the industrial and academic level. Through large investments, both public and private, it has been possible to design and manufacture very large wind turbines with a Cost of Energy (CoE) comparable to, if not lower than, other conventional sources. Such technologies include a reduction in design and development time through a multidisciplinary design that, from the initial design phase, is able to include the various engineering aspects associated with such a complex machine. But wind energy development can also continue in the coming years by going to exploit the wind resource at higher altitudes: in this area, Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) represents a new technological challenge