Alphabet discards Makani Power's flying turbine dream

How can we efficiently produce clean energy? Makani Power, a company building flying power plants, presented one idea. Over the years, it tested several working prototypes, but the company, acquired by Google, eventually shut down.

Makani Power's idea addresses issues related to ground-based wind turbines. Their construction is limited by factors such as the availability of suitable land and regulations governing the distance of turbines from residential buildings.

Variable wind, which does not always blow with sufficient force, also limits the efficiency of ground-based turbines. Makani Power, founded in 2006, proposed a solution to these limitations.

Instead of building ground-based energy infrastructure, Makani Power elevated the plant to several hundred metres. By lowering and raising the plant's operating altitude, optimal wind conditions could be sought, maximizing the plant's potential.

The flying power plant resembles a motor glider combined with a kite. It takes off and ascends vertically with its tail pointed down. After reaching the desired altitude, the tethered "glider" begins to circle, and the wind propels the turbine rotors. The electricity is transmitted to the ground via a cable.

Energy is generated at altitude, which has certain limitations—the mass of the generators must first be elevated hundreds of metres above the ground (Makani's competitors solved this problem by leaving the generators on the ground).

Makani Power was connected to Google from the beginning. Founded in 2006 with a grant awarded by Google under the RE>C program (Renewable Energy cheaper than Coal), it was acquired by Google in 2013 after the death of one of its founders and incorporated into the portfolio of initiatives developed under Google X. This is a research centre where Google develops promising, innovative technologies.

Although the increasingly larger prototypes built by Makani worked (although one was lost), and the company was invested in by Shell, among others, in 2020, Alphabet, which emerged from Google's restructuring, decided to close Makani Power. In an official statement, the company announced that the commercialization of the invention was more complicated than expected.

Despite Makani Power's closure, Alphabet decided to publish the technical documentation of the developed equipment, make the software source codes available, and declare the abandonment of patenting the developed solutions to enable anyone interested to continue working on flying power plants.