Elli presents kite-powered EV charging at Hannover Messe
As part of the federally subsidised TechnoHyb project, high-tech kites “harvest” the strong and steady winds blowing at high altitudes and convert them into electricity, as the Volkswagen Group describes in the press release. The energy is stored in the Elli Flexpole fast-charging station and can be used to charge electric vehicles – so the wind energy can also be used later for charging when the wind may no longer be blowing.
The TechnoHyb project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and coordinated at the Campus Open Hybrid LabFactory in Wolfsburg. This is why Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger visited the Hannover Messe to find out more about the project, which brings together science, industry and the startup scene. VW believes that the research approach “could solve a major problem for e-vehicle users in remote regions of the world
and has enormous potential for the diversification of energy generation and charging infrastructure”.
The Elli Flexpole with its integrated battery storage forms the basis of the charging infrastructure – in its original design, the buffer battery can be connected to the usually existing low-voltage grid so that fast charging with the electricity from the slowly charged battery is also possible without medium voltage and a transformer. In the case of the project, however, the energy source is not the low-voltage grid, but the EnerKite kite.
“EnerKíte systems provide constant power, converting green energy into a reliable source of electricity. With a yield four times higher than conventional wind turbines with the same power, EnerKíte presents an outstanding alternative,” said Florian Breipohl, CEO of EnerKite. “This opens up new possibilities for decentralized energy supply and supports the spread of electromobility in regions that were previously difficult to access.”
The VW TechnoHyb project is not the only endeavour to use kites to generate wind energy for electric cars. The Dutch startup Kitepower presented a very similar approach at the end of 2023.
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