One of the most popular solarpunk images is taking off in reality. The first recorded mention of solarpunk was in this 2008 blog. The author was inspired by the conceptual image of a cargo ship being pulled by a huge modern kite.
Following on from that the Jessica Woulfe’s artwork depicting blimp turbines (pictured above) won the Atomhawk solarpunk art competition in 2019. Since then Airborne Wind Energy Systems or AWES (love this acronym!) have become some of the most popular solarpunk imagery.
Many have thought this was just a protopian dream but as Matt Ferell explored in this recent video, AWES are getting much closer to reality. As Matt explains, a flying turbine has been successfully deployed by the company Kitepower in Ireland, poweringing the local town of Bangor.
What does a shipping container have to be filled with, to hold back a big kite (and its cable) experiencing more wind than a wind turbine?
If it generates electricity, why wouldn’t it work with the blimp angled to starboard, or even pointed straight backwards? IIRC a land vehicle can even ride into the wind, faster than the wind, so long as it’s extracting energy from the difference in velocity between dirt and air.