The State of the Art

 

The table below shows an comparison between different on-board power supply solutions

 

Typology

Energy Source

Heading direction

Max gen. Power

Traction

Altitude Wind

Power Utilisation

Yearly Availabilty

Operativity

Endothermic Engine Powered Vessel

Fossil

ALL

50 MW

Electric

Direct

N.A.

Traction

Aux

Always (depending on fuel availability)

AUTO

Hauled sail boat

Wind

120°(60°+60° hauled)

50kW

Aerodynamic Lift Effect

NO

Traction

3000h

MANUAL

Downwind sail boat

Wind

60°

30kW

Aerodynamic Drag Effect

NO

Traction

3000h

MANUAL

Skysails: direct kite-based traction

Wind

270° [1]

5MW

Aerodynamic Enhanced Drag

YES

Traction

6000h

Servo Assisted

Alcyone: Savonius-based direct traction

Wind

ALL

4kW

Aerodynamic

NO

Aux

Traction

1600h

AUTO

KitVes Project: Electrical on-board generation possibly combined with direct traction

Wind

ALL

60kW[2]

3MW [3]

30MW[4]

Electric

Pure Lift[5]

YES

Traction

Aux

6000h[6]

AUTO



[1] www.skysails.com

[2] KitVes maximum power based on the expected results from the demonstrator realized in this proposal exploiting wind in altitude.

[3] KitVes maximum power up-scaling the demonstrator.

[4] KitVes possible improvement based on the combination of the lift force with the airfoil thrust speed transferred to a linear alternomotor slider running on the whole side of the vessel.

[5] The airfoil flight is performed so that the energy subtracted to the wind is maximum. The airfoil control system drives the airfoil in order to exploit the lift force, that is, the force component which is orthogonal to the wind velocity. The airfoil lifts up sweeping the wind front continuously.

[6] Altitude wind is typically more strong and constant than the corresponding ground wind; The yearly availability is an open parameter only limited by the flying altitude.

 
 

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29 March 2012

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KitVes is a collaborative project of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission.


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