The year 2024 is coming to an end, and from Airborne Wind Europe, we wanted to go over the advancements and milestones achieved by the sector during the last twelve months. This year marked significant progress for the AWE sector, with groundbreaking achievements and global collaborations, paving the way for a cleaner energy future.
The Airborne Wind Energy Conference, AWEC 2024, hosted at the Campus Puerta de Toledo of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, brought together over 180 participants from 23 countries, solidifying its role as the primary platform for knowledge exchange in the AWE sector. Key achievements included interesting panels featuring prominent speakers like Sarah Barber from Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences or David Lecoque from Alliance for Rural Electrification; attractive activities like the Kitepower‘s kite exhibition; and the unveiling of Spain’s first fully domestic AWE prototype from UC3M and CT Ingenieros. The conference also celebrated AWE’s inclusion in Germany’s Renewable Energy Law (EEG), marking a critical step for political support.
Further advancements also include the validation of Skysails’ world’s first AWE performance curve and the market opening of their PN-14 system to Taiwan, marking Asia’s first AWE deployment. Also, Kitepower, within the DEM-AWE project, completed over 100 flights in Bangor Erris, Ireland, fostering community engagement through open days, school visits, and bird impact studies to ensure environmental compatibility. Kitemill secured a breakthrough with €3.35 million from the EU Innovation Fund, underscoring its contributions to sustainable innovation and earning recognition as a finalist for both the Innovation Radar Prize and European Union Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW). For their part, Kitekraft continued with their test campaign, achieving night flights, extended durations, and 27% trajectory efficiency improvements with AI-driven optimization.
In parallel, projects like EnerKíte’s EKEleVate, backed by €1.9 million in German federal funding, demonstrated AWE’s potential for reliable and sustainable energy at the Energy Transition Laboratory in Ketzin, Germany. Collaborative workshops organized with regional and local stakeholders through the JustWind4All project and with e.disnatur and open dialogue with local communities underscored the importance of transparency in the AWE project roll-out.
At WindEnergy Hamburg 2024, AWEU’s booth gathered over 300 visitors, featuring the presentations of key technological innovations from SkySails, Kitepower, and the discovery of EnerKíte‘s EK100 system design for commercial deployment, leading the way to market readiness. Wind Fisher, which has received this year, funding to expand their team, and Windswept, were also present supporting AWEU and explaining their AWE systems to the audience.
In addition, Airborne Wind Europe was also attending WindEurope Bilbao 2024, where AWEU Secretary General, Kristian Petrick, and Board Member, Agustin Arjonilla, led the roundtable “Airborne Wind Energy – Lifting Renewables to New Heights”, highlighting results from Life-Cycle-Analyses and the role of social acceptance through projects like JustWind4All. These successes set a clear path forward for WindEurope Copenhagen 2025.
Concurrently, the EU-funded MERIDIONAL project advanced with the WindLab initiative, promoting open-access wind energy data.
On the other hand, training initiatives gained momentum with the launch of the AWETRAIN Project, funded by Horizon Europe, set to hire 12 doctoral candidates in 2025. The global collaboration under IEA Wind Task 48 also expanded, with participation from China and Poland. The WESC 2025 in Nantes will host again a dedicated symposium on Airborne Wind Energy.
As 2024 concludes, Airborne Wind Europe welcomes a new colleague in January 2025 to strengthen connections with policymakers and the EU Commission. Her focus will include supporting new EU initiatives like the Competitiveness Act, the Net Zero Industry Act, and efforts to simplify EU funding, while also engaging with DG ENER’s new task force on start-ups.