China to flight-test world’s first megawatt-level 'windmill' airship

China is preparing to flight-test the world’s first megawatt-level airborne wind turbine system, the S1500, developed by Beijing SAWES Energy Technology Company in collaboration with Tsinghua University and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The S1500 is an airship-like floating turbine designed to harness high-speed, steady winds at an altitude of 1,500 meters (4,921 feet), where wind speeds are roughly three times faster than at conventional wind turbine heights of 200 meters. With a power generation capacity of 1 megawatt—equivalent to a traditional 100-meter wind turbine—the system uses helium for buoyancy and incorporates 12 carbon fiber micro-generators within its duct, weighing less than one tonne in total. Electricity generated in the sky is transmitted to the ground via cable. This project builds on SAWES’s previous achievements with smaller airborne turbines: the S500, which reached 500 meters altitude producing over 50 kW