TwingTec

Project "TwingTec" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

 Partnership

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Map

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 Project objective

Wind energy represents 25% of the new global installed electrical generation capacity, however, ground-based wind turbines (WTs) are estimated to supply only 18% of the world’s electricity by 2050, as current wind energy systems have major challenges limiting their commercial applications: heavy dependence of productivity on the prevailing weather and huge material needs, entailing low capacity factors, difficult and expensive transportation, troublesome installation and high costs. Our disruptive technology -Airborne Wind Energy, AWE- can harness the energy of the wind at high altitude to provide greater power output than conventional WTs, much higher capacity factors, exceeding 60% in good sites, using 95% less material needs per MW and avoiding all the associated issues. It replaces most of a conventional WT, namely the tower, blades and foundation by a much lighter and less expensive flying tethered aircraft. The reason for seeking wind at high altitude is that the wind blows faster and more constantly. Although conventional WTs are simply not viable in most areas, TwingTec can exploit high steady winds over most of the land area of the Earth. We firstly target the off-grid market relying on diesel generation, for the perfect combination of high energy costs and mobility requirements met by TwingTec: industrial off-takers and remote communities. LCOE estimations are €100-200/MWh, much cheaper than diesel generation. In the medium term, our products will address bigger scale promising markets as the off-shore segment in EU Islands, drastically decreasing LCOE. Unlike competitors, we have a proven technology, demonstrating our solution for automated Vertical Take-Off and Landing using integrated drone technology -patented-. TwingTec enables 2 business models: 1) OEM: TwingTec units are purchased and transport and installation costs are charged together with an annual O&M fee. 2) Energy as a Service: Off-grid electricity is paid to TwingTec on a per MWh basis.