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Twin Towers

Six months ago, Wubbo Ockels contacted Prolyte for his LadderMill Project.
Wubbo Ockels is an astronaut and currently works as professor at the Technical University in Delft. For this project he was looking for two towers of appox. 25 m. height. The towers should be built on top of a 55 m. high building.

The LadderMill project is part of the ASSET programme.
As a faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, ASSET (Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology) has been part in both bringing about space travel and changing mankind's perspective on planet earth.
The LadderMill is the response to the challenge for exploiting the gigantic energy source contained in the airspace up to high altitudes of 10 km.
The concept has been developed with the aim to convert wind energy at altitude in electricity on the ground in an environmental and cost effective manner. The laddermill consists of a large number of kites on an upward and downward motion. The kites used are of a breed between regular kites and airplanes. Whereas a kite climbs relatively easy, getting a kite down requires a force pulling in the cable. An airplane, on the other hand, requires large engines to gain altitude. Decreasing altitude is much easier, as the aircraft can glide to the ground. The kites used in the laddermill, generally called "kiteplanes", combine the ascension characteristics of kites with the descension characteristics of aircraft. By creating a large loop of kiteplanes ascending and descending, a rotation can be created. In turn, this rotation can be coupled to a generator to create energy. The loop of kiteplanes can ultimately go up to 30.000 feet, which would generate approximately 100MW.
Currently, there are several PhD students working on the laddermill in the fields of ground station mechanics, lightweight structures and flight mechanics. It is our intention to have a working demonstrator within the next four years. The laddermill project is an extremely multi-disciplinary project and it will lead to a radical change in wind energy doctrine.

The towers that Prolyte has developed for this project will be used to test the kite planes. Kite planes equipped with a sensor will be hung between the towers. The conduct of the planes, in several environmental conditions, will be tested and the results will be entered in an arithmetic model to see if their behaviour can de predicted.

Prolyte has provided the static calculations for the steel fundament frame, the erection frame, stainless steel guy wires of 16mm. and the truss for the towers. The towers are calcutalted to restrain windforces up to 140km/h.

This project has changed the sight on Delft permanently as the towers protrude prominently above the small city. During the Crismas Holidays the towers will be hightlighted by several Arena vision luminaires.

For more information go to www.laddermill.com


ARCHIVE		Twin Towers Six months ago, Wubbo Ockels contacted Prolyte for his LadderMill Project. Wubbo Ockels is an astronaut and currently works as professor at the Technical University in Delft. For this project he was looking for two towers of appox. 25 m. height. The towers should be built on top of a 55 m. high building. The LadderMill project is part of the ASSET programme. As a faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, ASSET (Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology) has been part in both bringing about space travel and changing mankind's perspective on planet earth. The LadderMill is the response to the challenge for exploiting the gigantic energy source contained in the airspace up to high altitudes of 10 km. The concept has been developed with the aim to convert wind energy at altitude in electricity on the ground in an environmental and cost effective manner. The laddermill consists of a large number of kites on an upward and downward motion. The kites used are of a breed between regular kites and airplanes. Whereas a kite climbs relatively easy, getting a kite down requires a force pulling in the cable. An airplane, on the other hand, requires large engines to gain altitude. Decreasing altitude is much easier, as the aircraft can glide to the ground. The kites used in the laddermill, generally called "kiteplanes", combine the ascension characteristics of kites with the descension characteristics of aircraft. By creating a large loop of kiteplanes ascending and descending, a rotation can be created. In turn, this rotation can be coupled to a generator to create energy. The loop of kiteplanes can ultimately go up to 30.000 feet, which would generate approximately 100MW. Currently, there are several PhD students working on the laddermill in the fields of ground station mechanics, lightweight structures and flight mechanics. It is our intention to have a working demonstrator within the next four years. The laddermill project is an extremely multi-disciplinary project and it will lead to a radical change in wind energy doctrine. The towers that Prolyte has developed for this project will be used to test the kite planes. Kite planes equipped with a sensor will be hung between the towers. The conduct of the planes, in several environmental conditions, will be tested and the results will be entered in an arithmetic model to see if their behaviour can de predicted. Prolyte has provided the static calculations for the steel fundament frame, the erection frame, stainless steel guy wires of 16mm. and the truss for the towers. The towers are calcutalted to restrain windforces up to 140km/h. This project has changed the sight on Delft permanently as the towers protrude prominently above the small city. During the Crismas Holidays the towers will be hightlighted by several Arena vision luminaires. For more information go to www.laddermill.com