Makani Technologies LLC was an
Alameda, California
Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...
-based company that developed
airborne wind turbines
An airborne wind turbine is a design concept for a wind turbine with a rotor supported in the air without a tower, thus benefiting from the higher velocity and persistence of wind at high altitudes, while avoiding the expense of tower construction ...
. Founded in 2006, Makani was acquired by
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
in May 2013. In February 2020, Makani was shut down by Alphabet, Google's parent company.
History
Makani was founded in 2006 by
Saul Griffith,
Don Montague, and Corwin Hardham. It received funding as part of
Google.org
Google.org, founded in October 2005, is the charitable arm of Google, a multinational technology company. The organization has committed roughly US$100 million in investments and grants to nonprofits annually.
The organization is noted for se ...
's Renewable Energy cheaper than Coal (RE
Hawaiian for "wind." Corwin Hardham died in 2012 at age 38. On 23 May 2013, Makani Power was acquired by Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
and was folded into Google X
X Development LLC (formerly Google X) is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010, which now operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. X has its headquarters about a mile and a ...
. In 2015, Fort Felker, former director of the National Wind Technology Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and d ...
(NREL) was hired as CEO.
In December 2016, Makani operated for the first time a 600 kW prototype with 28 meter wing span.
Starting August 2018, Makani operated an energy kite test site on the Big Island of Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the List of islands of the United States by area, largest island in the United States, located in the U.S. state, state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of High island, volcanic ...
.
In February 2019, Makani was separated from X and made into a subsidiary of Alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...
. At the same time, Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
made a minority investment in Makani and began a partnership with the company to develop its business.
In 2019 the offshore energy kite was lost during testing. Investigation and reporting on the technical details of the mishap was undertaken. The wing did not successfully land on the platform resulting in the loss of the energy kite.
In February 2020, Alphabet shut down Makani. The company said "Despite strong technical progress, the road to commercialization is longer and riskier than hoped." In September 2020, Makani released the Energy Kite Collection — a three-part report and accompanying collection of open source code repositories, flight logs and technical videos from the project. It also released ''Pulling Power from the Sky: The Story of Makani'', a documentary on the project, and made a non-assertion pledge on its patent portfolio, allowing anyone to use its patents without fear of legal reprisal.
Technology
In order to meet its goal of producing low-cost renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
, the Makani kite-energy system used autonomous tethered wings which flew in a circular path and generated electricity via wind turbines mounted upon the main wing, a method known as crosswind kite power
Crosswind kite power is power derived from a class of airborne wind-energy conversion systems (AWECS, also AWES) or crosswind kite power systems (CWKPS). The kite system is characterized by energy-harvesting parts flying transverse to the directio ...
, originally envisioned by Miles Loyd in a 1980 paper. Loyd stated that for large scale purposes flying the generators was expected to be disfavored because of the need to fly the mass of the generators; many of Makani Power competitors have generators kept on the ground, like KiteGen
KiteGen is a concept for a wind harnessing machine for high altitude winds, developed in Italy. The vertical axis rotation is intended to eliminate the static and dynamic problems that limit the size of conventional wind turbines. The prototype S ...
, Italy. The electricity is generated on the ground in the tether, utilising tension in the cable connected to the kite.
See also
* List of airborne wind energy organizations
This is a list of airborne wind energy or kite-energy organizations that are advancing airborne wind energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is tr ...
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Alphabet Inc.
Kites
Airborne wind power
Wind turbine manufacturers
Companies based in Alameda, California
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
American companies established in 2006
Renewable resource companies established in 2006
2006 establishments in California
Google acquisitions
Wind power companies of the United States
X (company)
Alphabet Inc. subsidiaries
2013 mergers and acquisitions