A group of researchers at Stanford University are working on designs for high-altitude wind turbine kites that fly so high that airliners would have to fly around them, according to Stanford. Flying an expected 30,000 feet above the Earth, the tethered kites would be able to reach powerful jet streams that can flow 10 times faster than winds closer to the ground.
The turbines’ spinning rotors would capture the wind’s power and convert it into electricity, which would then be sent down a wire to a distribution grid on the ground.
"If you tapped into 1% of the power in high-altitude winds, that would be enough to continuously power all civilization," said Ken Caldeira, an associate professor at Stanford and a researcher at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in a statement. He added that to generate the same amount of power, solar cells on the ground would have to cover roughly 100 times more area than a high-altitude wind turbine.
Stanford’s design efforts are the latest in a series of alternative energy research projects.