In this blog post series, we shed light on customers Kitekraft's customers. We tell you what they do, what their vision is, and how our technology can help them to achieve it. Once our product is on the market these companies will be the first to be supplied with Kitekraft systems. This episode presents: Enerwhere.
Enerwhere is one of Kitekraft’s early supporters and with them, we signed our first PPA (Power Purchase Agreement). Kitekraft has been working with Enerwhere since 2019, when we ran into Enerwhere founder & chairman Daniel Zywietz at the Airborne Wind Energy Conference (AWEC) in Glasgow. The exchange was useful for a directed technology development and Daniel’s input has helped us a lot.
Enerwhere is a microgrid developer in the Middle East and Africa, providing temporary power solutions to the construction, mining, oil & gas and industrial sectors. Their solar-hybrid solutions are cleaner & more reliable than conventional diesel generators. Crucially Enerwhere’s solar-hybrid power plants are also transportable, allowing them to be deployed on very short notice and for a limited period of time, significantly reducing costs and CO2 emissions of their customers in the process.
Enerwhere’s projects are often located in remote areas, with limited grid access or capacity. In the past, such sites have been completely reliant on expensive & dirty diesel generators. Besides that, the transportation of the fuel itself is often a significant cost driver of such projects. Today-- thanks to Enerwhere--this is changing rapidly.
However, it could be changing even faster if Enerwhere had a better & more cost-effective solution to produce power at night, which currently requires expensive batteries to store & shift solar energy. Wind power would be a perfect complement to Enerwhere’s current systems, as in many places thermal winds follow the sun with several hours of lag, meaning production is strongest in the evening and night hours. "Kitekraft finally makes wind energy available in a transportable package that can be rapidly deployed without requiring foundations, which is impossible with conventional wind turbines. ", Daniel points out.
Kitekraft’s systems - light, compact & transportable - are the perfect addition to Enerwhere’s transportable microgrids. While not all regions in the Middle East have consistent high winds, many coastal and high desert areas in the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia are nevertheless well-suited for harnessing wind power. Supplementing the high solar potential, Kitekraft's flying wind turbines can supplement microgrids during the evening and night, when the wind increases and solar power drops.
To quantify the effect, we can look at a location with an average wind speed of 6.65m/s at 100m altitude, e.g. in the Habshan region of Abu Dhabi in the UAE. A Kitekraft 100kW system will produce around 253 MWh year, saving nearly 75,000 liters of diesel in the process. As Daniel states, "The local diesel price here, as in most places in the Middle East, is much lower than in Europe at around 0.60-0.70 $/L – but even at that low price, the cost of a kWh of diesel power is in the range of 0.15-0.20$/kWh, or around 3-4x the cost of grid electricity for industrial customers." The yearly savings would thus account to almost 40,000$ - a clear bargain!
That's the reason why Enerwhere has been pursuing airborne wind since 2019: "We strongly believe that Kitekraft's flying wind turbines will greatly change the way we can optimize microgrids for our customers. Making wind power an option in the temporary power market opens the door to a 20B$ market.", says Daniel, "We cannot wait for their first system to be delivered!"
About Enerwhere
Enerwhere is the first and leading distributed solar utility in the Middle East and Africa. Enerwhere provides innovative and sustainable power solutions to commercial and industrial customers who currently rely on diesel generators. Their solar-hybrid solutions are reliable, transportable, available on a temporary / rental basis, and enable customers to significantly reduce their costs and CO2 emissions.
Enerwhere | Office #116, Al Quoz - Dubai, United Arab Emirates | +971 (0) 4 396 9765 | info@enerwhere.com
About Kitekraft
Kitekraft builds flying wind turbines, a combination of a drone and kite. This enables wind power with material reduction of 90%,making it half the cost of conventional wind turbines. Kitekraft is a spin-off of the Technical University of Munich and YCombinator alumni.
Kitekraft GmbH | Rudolf-Diesel-Str.26, 85521 Hohenbrunn, Germany | +49 89 92791994 | info@kitekraft.de
