Gigantic airborne wind turbine with 1.2-megawatt output successfully tested in China

China's revolutionary S1500 airborne turbine has successfully completed its maiden flight in Hami, a city in the country's northwest Xinjiang region. The successful test marks a major milestone for the project, which was reported about a month ago to be preparing for its first flight as the world's first megawatt-level airborne turbine.

The S1500 is the largest and most powerful airborne wind-power generator ever built, measuring 60 meters long, 40 meters wide, and 40 meters high. It houses 12 individual turbine-generator sets, each rated at 100 kW. The entire system is designed to harness the power of continuous high-altitude winds, converting wind into electricity that is then sent down through a tether cable.

In the test, the S1500 system passed rigorous tests, including full assembly in the desert and continuous deployment and retrieval in high-wind conditions. However, the team has not yet released data on how much power the system was able to output during the test.

The S1500 is the biggest, most powerful, and latest in a series of successful prototypes, which includes the S500 and S1000 models. The development team — a collaboration between Beijing SAWES Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences — claims the new system is equipped with safety features that will allow it to operate without interruption for 25 years. The new turbine could be used to provide power to remote areas and disaster zones, where rapid relocation and deployment will give it an edge over conventional power generators.