Investigation of harnessing high altitude tethered rotorcraft wind systems

The global electrical energy consumption is rising and there is steady increase of the demand on power generation. The existing conventional energy sources are depleting. So alternative energy source investment are becoming more important now a days. In this proposed work, jet stream of air at high altitude, is used for the wind energy system in order to generate electric power with the aid of tethered rotorcraft. The rotorcraft is lifted into the atmosphere and made to sustain and operate with the help of centripetal force and produces power, which can be sent to the grid with the help of tether and electric power converters. The proposed work is carried out such that the generation of wind energy is increased by changing the design parameters. The simulation results also show that at higher altitude the wind energy generated is higher with the improved design. Power can be generated only when the wind moves at a speed of 4.5m/s, but in recent days micro wind turbines that generated power even at lesser wind speeds are designed. This paves the way to develop most continuous wind energy conversion system with high power.