Abstract
This chapter gives an introduction to the economic assessment of Pumping Kite Generator Systems on the basis of established methods for conventional Wind Energy Conversion Systems. Site and system characteristics as well as market factors that have an impact on the economic viability of a wind energy project are described and levelized cost of energy is introduced as an indicator. A specific Pumping Kite Generator concept is used as an example throughout the chapter to illustrate all steps of the analysis. This example is finally used to show how system and site parameters can affect the economics of a project. It is shown that the considered Pumping Kite Generator can be competitive under European market conditions.
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Acknowledgments
The work on this chapter was performed at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) in the context of the SwissKitePower project and supported by Alstom Switzerland AG, the Swiss Competence Center of Energy and Mobility, the Bundesamt f¨ur Energie. Special thanks go to Dr. Wilfried van Sark from Utrecht University, Dr. Gianfranco Guidati from Alstom Switzerland AG and Prof. Dr. Heinz Burtscher from FHNW, who supervised the M.Sc. thesis of the first author, which served as a basis for this paper. Dr. Rolf Luchsinger and his team at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) supported the thesis work and the work on this paper through supplying expert device on various topics. Furthermore, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments.
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Heilmann, J., Houle, C. (2013). Economics of Pumping Kite Generators. In: Ahrens, U., Diehl, M., Schmehl, R. (eds) Airborne Wind Energy. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39965-7_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39965-7_15
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