Under the support of the European Space Agency’s ESA, research is being conducted on a technology in which an unmanned aerial vehicle connected with cables like a kite flying uses a strong wind in the sky and rotates the ground turbine with this force. The drone acts as a windmill wing.
In addition to space development, ESA is also providing navigation and innovation support called NAVISP (Navigation Innovation and Support Program). As part of this, Dutch company Ampyx Power is conducting this experiment.
Since the wind power generation of the windmill installed on the ground is at a low position, the flowing wind is slow, but strong winds blow at a higher position. This allows you to get more power. For this reason, using a drone at an altitude of 200m or more above the ground. The advantage of drones is that they can be made with about 10% more materials than wind turbines and can increase the amount of power generated. It can also be landed regularly, making it easy to repair and maintain.
General wind power generation is the highest, about 170m above the ground. If not until here, it is usually 130m, but if a drone can be used, much higher efficiency can be expected. Related information can be found here .