Portuguese researchers create airborne device to generate wind energy

A team of researchers from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) has developed an aerial device that, connected to a ground station by cable, aims to be an ecological alternative to wind energy production, as shown this Thursday.

In an interview with Lusa, Fernando Fontes, a researcher at the FEUP Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, clarified that the device, called UPWIND, has been in development since 2017.

The device developed by the FEUP team resembles a wing and allows it to capture wind at higher altitudes, unlike traditional wind turbines.

“Wind at high altitudes has a higher speed compared to wind at ground level and is more stable and constant,” the researcher explained, emphasizing that the developed solution is an “economic and ecological alternative” to turbines, since it allows energy to be extracted at high altitudes without increasing production costs.

The technology connects to a ground station via a large cable and is designed to be “relatively light and small.”

Fernando Fontes explained to Luce that the prototype developed weighs about 30 kilograms (kg), and the wing weighs about one kilogram (kg).

“We have a functional prototype in a controlled environment and we want to test that prototype intensively,” he said.

The FEUP team, consisting of eight principal investigators and 16 staff members, is currently considering several locations to test the prototype.

Having received funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) to develop methodologies for the automatic lifting and landing of the devices, the FEUP team has received funding, also from FCT, to study the feasibility of installing these devices in wind farms.

“The problem here is different from that of turbines, there are issues related to collisions of wings and cables. The question is to understand how we can place these devices in a given area to use the wind most effectively,” he added.

According to Fernando Fonte, the team wants to make the product “more robust” and to do this they will have to test the device in different wind conditions and over long periods of time.

The future goal is to scale the solution in terms of power by developing a prototype with a power of five and 30 kW.

The research group is currently reviewing three patent applications: one national and two European.

UPWIND won first place in the national final of ClimateLaunchPad, a competition organised by UPTEC, Ordem dos Engenheiros and Forum Oceano, and will represent Portugal in the regional final of the competition.