Challenges and Opportunities for Airborne Wind Energy in the United States

The Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) has released a Congressionally directed report assessing the potential for, and technical viability of, airborne wind energy (AWE) in the United States. In addition to other findings, the analysis concludes that the resource potential of wind energy available to AWE systems is likely similar to that available to traditional wind energy systems. Given its current cost and state of technology readiness, however, AWE would need significant further development before it could deploy at meaningful scales at the national level.