Airborne Wind Energy

Objectives

The objective of the IEA Wind TCP Task 48 on Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) is to tackle technological, regulatory and policy challenges on a global level, addressing and including stakeholders such as AWE developers, suppliers, policy makers, authorities, regulators and other wind energy and technology experts.

AWE systems allow capturing wind resources at altitudes up to 800m while significantly reducing the amount of material input. Through its scalability, AWE technology unlocks new markets and locations for wind energy, allowing AWE to play a significant role in future energy system.

Task 48 is the key platform for knowledge exchange about AWE, helping increase awareness and expertise on the technology.

In 2025, the first 4-year term of Task 48 ended and the 2nd term started in October.

Participation

In 2025, the following 11 countries supported Task 48:

Progress, Results, and Impact in 2025

Various papers and studies have been developed throughout 2025 within Task 48 and in collaboration with other projects. Results were presented among others in the AWE symposium at the WESC 2025 in Nantes.

Under Work Package 1 (resources), the two studies stand out:

• "Kite as a sensor: wind and state estimation in tethered flying systems" [1] and
• "On Wind Estimation Techniques for Airborne Wind Energy Systems" [2].

Their findings are being used in the development of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard on power performance measurement of AWE systems (IEA 61400-12-80), see below.

Under Work Package 2, a number of studies were carried out dealing with models, tools and simulations, such as

• the general "System Design and Scaling Trends in Airborne Wind Energy" [3] and
• the more detailed studies "Simulation of Flow Over a Ram-Air Kite in the Depowered State" [4],
• the "Aerodynamic analysis of a 2D rigid LEI airfoil" [5] and
• the "Regression Model of Leading Edge Inflatable Kite Profile Aerodynamics" [6].

There have been also studies on offshore AWE applications like

• "Optimising the design of an offshore wind farm using AWE systems" [7] and
• "Perspectives on design of floating platforms for offshore AWE systems" [8].

Moreover, the BORNE ("Belgium Offshore aiRborne wind Energy", Ghent University and UC Louvain), are using the dynamic simulation and flight control framework of the previously developed MegaAWES project to focus on various higher- and lower fidelity modelling aspects of the kite and the flow field.

The TU Gent worked on

• "Opti-MegAWES : a toolbox for optimal path planning of megawatt-scale airborne wind energy systems" [9] and
• "Aero-servo simulations of an AWE system using geometry-resolved computational fluid dynamics" [10].

The University of Porto published under the UPWind project among others

• the thesis "Optimization of Power Generation Using Wind at Different Heights in AWES" [11] and
• "Wake Effect Mitigation Through Layout Design of Airborne Wind Energy Farms." [12]

Under Work Package 3 on safe operations, the development of AWE-specific standards as part of IEC-61400 was started in 2025. The approach of defining

• an overarching new series IEC-61400-80 on AWE systems [13] – using the -2 standard on small wind systems as basis – as well as
• an AWE-specific on power performance measurements (IEC 61400-12-80 [14])

has been accepted by the TC 88 after having successfully past the vote of the national committees. The working group consists of experts from currently 5 countries.

Task 48 participants also provided important input to regulatory proposal towards the German government with regards to AWE airspace integration.

Under Work Package 4 on social acceptance and in collaboration with the Horizon Europe project JustWind4All , the Energy Read "Securing local support for AWE projects – a guide for project developers" [15] was developed, taking into consideration the findings from the detailed social acceptance study by Helena Schmidt [16]. It also includes the experiences of a Living Lab on social acceptance of AWE systems, with a with a particular focus on participation, energy justice and social innovation in the region of Brandenburg (Germany) where Enerkite develops a new test site in Ketzin. Various workshops were carried out with a wide range of stakeholders. [Figure 1]

The guide recommends among others to treat community engagement as a core project discipline like permitting or engineering; engage early with communities, ensure transparency throughout the project, adapt to local context and maintain ongoing communication.

The study "Exploring noise annoyance and sound quality for AWES insights from a listening experiment" [17] investigated the relationship between sound quality metrics (SQMs) and noise annoyance caused by AWES. In a controlled listening experiment, 75 participants rated their annoyance on the International Commission on Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN) scale in response to recordings from in-field measurements of two fixed-wing and one soft-wing ground-generation AWES. The results revealed that sharpness was the only SQM predicting participants' annoyance. The findings emphasize the importance of considering psychoacoustic factors in the design and operation of AWESs to reduce noise annoyance. Another study developed an aeroacoustic prediction framework for AWES [18].

The majority of AWE companies use ground generation systems, including innovative concepts like the light-than-air kite applying the magnus effect from Wind Fisher. (Figure 2).

Next Steps

Starting its 2nd term in October 2025, Task 48 will focus on four Work Packages: i) materials, manufacturing & supply; ii) models & tools; iii) regulation & deployment; iv) social acceptance & environmental Impacts.

The objective is to support the introduction of the first commercial AWE systems into the market.

References

WP1:

1. O. Cayon, S.J. Watson, R. Schmehl (2025), Kite as a sensor: wind and state estimation in tethered flying systems,
2. Bordignon, Matteo; Croce, Alessandro; Fagiano, Lorenzo Mario (2025), On Wind Estimation Techniques for Airborne Wind Energy Systems,

WP2:

3. R. Joshi, Roland Schmehl, Dominic von Terzi (2025) System Design and Scaling Trends in Airborne Wind Energy, Doctoral thesis (2025)
4. D. Sogasu, A.H. van Zuijlen, P. Thedens, M.I. Gerritsma (2025) Simulation of Flow Over a Ram-Air Kite in the Depowered State, Master thesis
5. T.L.B. van Lith, R. Schmehl, Jelle Poland, D.A.M. De Tavernier, A.H. van Zuijlen (2025), Aerodynamic analysis of a 2D rigid LEI airfoil, An experimental and numerical study, Master thesis (2025)
6. K.R.G. Masure, R. Schmehl, Jelle Poland (2025), Regression Model of Leading Edge Inflatable Kite Profile Aerodynamics, Master thesis
7. T.J.A.O. Bosman, M.E. Kootte, I.A.M. Goddijn, An airborne wind farm (2025), Optimising the design of an offshore wind farm using airborne wind energy systems,
8. A. Bertozzi, F. Niosi, B. Paduano, X. Jiang (2025), Perspectives on design of floating platforms for offshore airborne wind energy systems,
9. Omid Heydarnia, Jolan Wauters, Tom Lefebvre and Guillaume Crevecoeur (2025), Opti-MegAWES : a toolbox for optimal path planning of megawatt-scale airborne wind energy systems, WESC 2025 : Wind Energy Science Conference, Proceedings.
10. Niels Pynaert, Thomas Haas, Jolan Wauters, Guillaume Crevecoeur and Joris Degroote (2025), Aero-servo simulations of an airborne wind energy system using geometry-resolved computational fluid dynamics, https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/01KE7YZGC1VRBC1HH7J0DW0ZF5 WIND ENERGY SCIENCE. 10(11). p.2663-2684
11. Carvalho, M. (2025) Optimization of Power Generation Using Wind at Different Heights in Airborne Wind Energy Systems (AWES). Universidade do Porto,
12. Quinta, J. (2025) Wake Effect Mitigation Through Layout Design of Airborne Wind Energy Farms.

WP3:

13. IEC TS 61400-12-80 ED1: Power performance measurements of electricity producing Airborne Wind Energy Systems (AWES)
14. IEC TS 61400-80 ED1: Airborne Wind Energy Systems (AWES) (proposed IEC TS 61400-80)

WP4:

15. Petrick et al. 2025: Energy Read: Securing local support for AWE projects – a guide for project developers. JustWind4All, https://justwind4all.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AWEEnergy-Read_V5.pdf
16. H. Schmidt, R. Schmehl, G. de Vries (2025), Community Acceptance of Airborne Wind Energy, Is the Sky the Limit? Doctoral thesis
17. H.S. Schmidt, R.M. Yupa Villanueva, D. Ragni, R. Merino Martinez, Piet J. R. van Gool, R. Schmehl (2025) Exploring noise annoyance and sound quality for airborne wind energy systems: insights from a listening experiment, Journal article (2025)
18. A.I. Mitrea, R. Schmehl, D. Ragni (2025) Aeroacoustic Prediction Framework for Airborne Wind Energy Systems, Master thesis