The role of innovation - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 199

In addition to its logistical difficulties, deep offshore wind energy can
also give rise to new types of conflicts with competing ocean uses such as
shipping, fishing, and offshore oil and gas extraction. As the offshore wind
energy industry expands, nations are increasingly adopting marine spatial
planning programs to help balance these competing uses. Marine spatial
planning programs effectively create an ocean zoning regime, using maps
to limit particular types of marine uses to specifically identified areas. 19
Greater coordination among countries that share seas will also eventually
be needed to help avoid disputes as deep offshore wind energy gradually
increases the commercial value of marine areas in the coming years. 20
Although deep offshore wind energy is presently little more than a
fledgling niche industry, it unquestionably represents one of the next major
horizons for the renewable energy movement. Given its myriad advantages,
deep offshore wind energy development promises to be a vital component
of the global energy transition over the next century as nations look for
additional ways to add to their renewable energy portfolios without unduly
disrupting other aspects of their economies.
Airborne wind turbines
Wind energy development is not only extending further and further
offshore; it is also beginning to extend higher and higher into the airspace
above land. The renewable energy potential of earth's high-altitude wind
currents is astounding—a 2012 study estimated that the energy in these
high winds is more than 100 times greater than the current global energy
demand. 21 Practical constraints on turbine tower heights have historically
kept these exceptional wind resources out of reach, but new airborne wind
turbine technologies could soon make them readily accessible for electricity
generation.
Airborne wind turbines are devices that soar thousands of feet above
the surface of land, tethered to the ground by strong cables. These flying
turbines convert the kinetic energy in high-altitude winds into electric
current that is then delivered via the cables down to transmission facilities
on the ground. 22 Federally-funded researchers in the United States have
been exploring the possibilities of airborne wind energy for years and
have compiled a fascinating array of futuristic turbine designs. Indeed,
an airborne turbine can take the form of “a funnel-shaped blimp with a
turbine at its back; or a balloon with vanes that rotate; a truss-braced wing;
a parachute; a kite … any and all of them are ideas being considered.” 23
Multiple U.S. companies have already developed airborne turbine proto-
types and have legitimate plans for commercial rollouts over the next
several years. 24 In 2013, the possibilities of airborne wind energy proved
promising enough to convince the Internet behemoth Google to purchase
Makani Power—a company that is aggressively pursuing airborne wind
technologies. 25