Dynamic modeling of floating offshore airborne wind energy converters

Airborne wind energy converters represent a promising new technology that aims at providing low cost electricity by exploiting airborne systems to harvest energy from high-altitude winds. These plants are interesting for their potential high power density, i.e. ratio between nominal power and weight of required constructions, that makes it possible to forecast extremely low levelized cost for the produced electricity. However, installations of airborne wind energy converters in inland areas might be limited by the required free airspace and by safety problems. For these reasons, marine installations are envisaged, with special interest on the case of floating platforms in deep water locations, that are the most abundantly available. In order to properly address the problem of design and verification of such a kind of system, models that are able to describe the dynamic response of floating platforms to combined kite forces and wave loads have to be developed. This chapter presents a simplified 6 degree-of-freedom model, which couples the linear hydrodynamics of the floating platform with the aerodynamics of the airborne system. A case study is also introduced showing how the dynamic response of the floating platform can affect the performances of the system introducing irregularities in the power output.