High altitude wind energy generation for stratospheric telecommunication balloons in real field

Abstract

Solving the energy problem of high altitude unmanned air vehicles is crucial to keep them at target altitude for years. One of the potential power sources is wind power, which is powerful and permanent in the stratosphere. This study outlines the simplified wind energy model integrated into station, keeping the stratospheric balloon to predict the wind power generation in the real field. The sample simulation of the system was run in one of the Turkey's city coordinates and real atmospheric conditions with the inclusion of wind profile. To keep the balloon at the flight station coordinates, propulsion has been applied and energy demand of the propulsion unit has been compared with the wind energy conversion unit output data. Simulation results show that wind energy can compensate energy demand of propulsion unit between 92%-100% in ascending phase depending on the wind turbine swept area. It can be reported that wind energy unit would be helpful to solve the energy problem of stratospheric balloons.