Makani Power has become an independent subsidiary of Alphabet, the mother company of Google. Shell made a minority investment in the company. The size of Shell’s minority investment was not disclosed but Alphabet said the arrangement was made to establish a partnership between the businesses, rather than out of a need to attract outside capital.The companies plan to shift the technology from the land to offshore. Makani’s kites don’t need to be supported by large platforms. Instead, they plan to mount Makani’s kite on a small spar buoy moored with a synthetic line and gravity anchor. This is possible because Makani’s kites are 90% lighter than turbines of a similar power rating, according to Fort Felker, CEO of Makani. They plan to kick off testing of this new floating offshore system with demonstrations in Norway later this year. In addition to preparing for their floating offshore work in Norway, over the coming year They will continue to demonstrate their energy kite system and learn from ongoing flights at our test site in Hawai’i.
