Ampyx Power is an airborne wind energy company founded in 2008 by Bas Lansdorp and Richard Ruiterkamp. It was created after Lansdorp dropped his five-year-long studies of wind energy at Delft University of Technology to found Ampyx Power. In 2011, Lansdorp sold a majority of his Ampyx Power shares to fund his new project, Mars One. Wubbo Ockels' interest in energy began when he let a kite line slip and it burned his hand. He became interested and started to study and research how this could be turned into electricity. At Delft University, he formed a team with Bas Lansdorp that worked on developing kites that could retrieve energy from the sky. Richard Ruiterkamp became the team leader and he created a fixed wing aircraft that allowed greater controllability and allowing the generation of more energy. In 2008 he founded the company with Bas Lansdorp. Lansdorp worked on the business aspect, and Ruiterkamp was head of the science division. Currently, Ampyx Power has a team of 40 engineers. The current prototype is the AP3 Ampyx Power Airborne Wind Energy System. The system is a tethered aircraft that converts wind into electric energy. The aircraft is tethered to an on the ground generator. When the aircraft moves and flies, it reels the tether and powers the generator. The plane is then reeled in through the tether and then re-released into the air.
History
Founding
Originally, the company was a team that former astronaut Wubbo Ockels formed at Delft University of Technology to investigate how heat, wind, and friction energy could be converted into electricity. The team consisted of several scientists, including team leader Richard Ruiterkamp and Wubbo Ockels. Bas Lansdorp later stepped in as a business manager. In 2008 Ampyx Power was founded by Bas Lansdorp and Richard Ruiterkamp. The company's original prototypes were tethered flexible membrane kites but then Ruiterkamp began to work on fixed wing aircraft. The company now consists of 50 employees of which 40 are engineers.
AP0-AP3 Prototypes
Ampyx Power proved its concept with three generations of prototypes constructed between 2009 and 2013 .
2009 - 2012: AP0 Prototypes
Ampyx Power showed that power production with a tethered aircraft is feasible with the first prototype, AP0.
2012: AP1 Prototype - First Autonomous 1 Hour Flight
Ampyx Power reached a significant milestone in 2012 by showing fully autonomous power production for the first time. During a 50 minute flight, the possibility of autonomous operation was demonstrated. Many investors, such as EON, noticed the company at this point and started to take interest in Ampyx Power's take on wind power.
2015: AP3 Design Started
Ampyx Power started the design of the last prototype AP3. The goal of AP3 was to prove scaling and robust continuous operation. Upon completion of AP3, the technology matured to a state that the commercial type can be defined. In December 2016 Orange Aircraft in Breda started the production of AP3. The company had also commissioned an assessment of the ecological impact of the technology. The technology was used as an example for a life cycle assessment of airborne wind energy.
April 2017: Ampyx Power and EON cooperation
On April 17, 2017, Ampyx Power signed a cooperation agreement with German energy company EON. Under the contract, EON and Ampyx Power collaborated to realise an AP3 and AP4 test site in Ireland. Following successful demonstration of AP3 and AP4 the companies continued with the first offshore test site and the subsequent re-powering of early EON offshore projects to prolong the technical lifetime.
The cost of offshore wind power increases significantly with water depth, due to the increased costs of foundation works either bottom-fixed or floating. Due to its much smaller overturning moments, Ampyx Power’s system, which generates electricity from wind using an aircraft flying 500m high, could be deployed on relatively small anchored floating platforms, allowing economically possible deployment of AWES in places where deployment of conventional offshore wind turbines is economically or technically impossible. The project, called the ‘Sea-Air-Farm’ project, was performed by a consortium of Ampyx Power, ECN, Marin and Mocean Offshore. The consortium researched the offshore application of floating AWES and the possibilities and limitations of an entire airborne wind park with multiple systems, far-offshore and in deep waters. The project was carried out with subsidy of Topsector Energy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. ECN validated the aerodynamic tools, modelled installation and O&M scenarios, and calculated the yield and costs. Mocean Offshore designed the floating platform with its mooring and infield cables, which were tested in Marin’s test basin. Ampyx Power designed the conceptual aircraft and the entire offshore windfarm, studied the certification framework, and managed the project. The research indicates that a wind farm is technically possible and cost competitive. The figures are promising for the future of AWES, given the fact that MW-scale AWES are still at the very early stages of their technological and commercial development, and significant further cost reductions can be expected in the future. A public summary was published in April 2018.
