Key Points
High-altitude winds remain a huge untapped source of renewable energy, but a race to the sky is well underway...
For a child, the simple act of flying a kite can be exhilarating; running and pulling at the line to send it ever higher into the sky where the winds dance to their own wild tune...
Those same winds that captivate young imaginations are also working their magic on a growing body of researchers intent on harvesting what are known as high-altitude winds..
Moritz Diehl, who heads the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg, said harvesting high-altitude winds is one of the most promising technologies for generating renewable energy in the future...
You see all the sky above conventional turbines, and you think all this wind energy is just blowing there and its not used, he said.. Stephan Wrage, CEO of the German wind power company SkySails-Power, wants to change that and make the largest yet untapped source of renewable energy worldwide suitable for mass use...
