Google has been testing airborne wind turbines in Alameda and off the windy coast of Pescadero’s Pigeon Point and is ready to fly them next month, said Astro Teller, the “captain of moonshots” of the company’s cutting-edge Google X laboratory.
Teller revealed the updates during a wide-ranging keynote talk Tuesday at Austin’s South by Southwest conference.
The aircraft evolved from Google’s acquisition a year ago of Alameda-based energy startup Makani Power, a company co-founded by the late kitesurfer and engineer Corwin Hardham that invented kite-like devices to harness the wind.
Teller said the turbines sit on a perch and look like the main span of a large airplane with eight propellers. The airborne turbines are more efficient, and cheaper to build, than traditional wind mills, such as the hulking towers at the Altamont Pass that will soon power Google’s campus.
Above: Pigeon Point lighthouse in San Mateo County in 2011. Google said Tuesday it has been testing airborne wind turbines near the historic beacon. (Photo by Patrick Tehan/Mercury News)
