China is reportedly testing a new airborne wind turbine

China would test a new airborne wind turbine

By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron

The future of renewable energy could be in the sky. Chinese researchers have reportedly tested a new gravity-defying wind turbine system that they say could generate electricity from the airspace above cities.

The turbine is called the S2000 Stratosphere Airborne Wind Energy System, or SAWES. Held by what is essentially a helium airship, the machine is said to have generated 385 kilowatts of electricity 2,000 meters (more than 6,500 feet) above the city of Yibin, in China’s Sichuan province, according to a recent Euronews report.

You can see it in action in the video below.

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“Traditional wind turbines work by rotating their blades when the wind hits them, generating electricity,” Weng Hanke, co-founder and chief technology officer of the wind turbine’s manufacturer, Beijing Linyi Yunchuan Energy Technology, told Euronews. “This generator works the same way, except that the electricity production does not occur at ground level but in the air.” As the blades rotate, the cables carry electricity to the ground.

Researchers reportedly carried out similar tests last September, and the machine is still a prototype. Although China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the country is also the world leader in renewable energy, including wind and solar.

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