Kitekraft's flying turbine can freeze or land to avoid birds and insects

A German startup, Kitekraft, is developing an airborne wind turbine that can hover in place when birds approach or land autonomously during insect migrations. The system uses roughly 90% less material than a conventional turbine of the same power rating, per the company, and is designed to reduce wildlife collisions.

Bottom line — Kitekraft's design uses 10x less material than a conventional turbine and can land to avoid insect swarms.

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• Kitekraft's aircraft is an aluminum boxplane configuration, chosen over a soft kite or carbon-fiber wing for lower complexity and better scalability, per the company.
• An optional AI-powered camera at the ground station detects birds; the turbine can then enter a hover mode to let them pass underneath, according to Kitekraft.
• During heavy insect migrations, the safest response is to land the aircraft, which prevents collisions and avoids performance losses from insect buildup on the wings, the company said.
• The system can also land autonomously in extreme weather, unlike stationary conventional turbines, per Kitekraft.
• Kitekraft plans to use the same basic configuration across products from kilowatt-scale to megawatt-scale systems.

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