Wind power is the second most abundant renewable energy source in the world, behind solar energy. The most powerful winds are at high altitudes too far up for stationary wind turbines to use, so some companies are designing special kites to take advantage of these winds. Calculated in terms of wattage per square feet, high altitude wind power is tops. Flying at 2,000 feet, special kites are capable of generating several megawatts of power.  Read more about Future of Wind Power: Increasing Economic Competitiveness as Technology Matures

One of the main questions yet to be answered is how high altitude wind-capturing kites would share air space with air traffic. Another question is how to get the energy harnessed by the kites to population centers. One fortuitous discovery is that New York City is one of the best spots on the planet for tapping into high altitude wind power. Researchers at the California State University and the Carnegie Institution have found that the best areas for harvesting high altitude wind power coincidentally match up with several large population centers, not only in the US, but also in Eastern Asia.

Future of Wind Power: Increasing Economic Competitiveness as Technology Matures

There was already plenty of data from the National Center for Environmental Prediction about wind energy at high altitudes, and the researchers from Carnegie and Cal State amassed the data, assessing the potential for wind power by calculating wind power density, measured in kilowatts per square meter. This calculation takes into account air density and wind speed at various altitudes.

At altitudes near 30,000 feet, winds blow much stronger and more steadily than winds near the earth’s surface. The jet streams, which blow from 20,000 to 50,000 feet in altitude are about 10 times stronger than winds near the ground. They are also quite steady, and therefore dependable. Current kite-like designs can generate up to 40 megawatts and use its tether to transfer the energy to the ground. What happens at that point is only conjecture at this point. Whether the energy would be stored, or shared on a huge-scale electric grid is as yet unknown.

Worldwide, the best wind power densities occur over eastern China and Japan in addition to the US’s eastern coast. South Australia and north-east Africa also have good wind power densities, meaning the winds are strong enough to generate at least 10 kilowatts per square meter. By contrast, near the ground wind turbines make at best one kilowatt per square meter.

An assessment of high altitude wind power for the five largest cities in the world, Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul, and Tokyo, found that Tokyo, New York, and Seoul have abundant high-altitude wind resources. New York is the highest in the US, with wind power density reaching up to 16 kilowatts per square meter.

Except for solar power, the earth’s greatest readily available power source is wind energy. Harnessed and distributed, high altitude wind farming could revolutionize the production of electricity worldwide.