{"id":582097,"date":"2026-08-27T16:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/582097\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T16:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:10:23","slug":"china-taps-high-altitude-winds-for-power-generation-by-flying-craft-to-4000m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/582097\/","title":{"rendered":"China taps high-altitude winds for power generation by flying craft to 4,000m"},"content":{"rendered":"

China has flown an airborne wind energy system to 4,000 metres (13,123 feet) above sea level and generated electricity from the sky, in what state broadcaster CCTV described as a world first.<\/p>\n

According to a CCTV report on Saturday, the prototype S4000 craft completed a full work cycle \u2013 ascent, station-keeping, power generation and recovery \u2013 at a test site in northwestern China, which the broadcaster called a breakthrough for high-altitude wind power and a step towards engineering deployment.<\/p>\n

The craft, which is roughly the length of a Boeing 747 and resembles an airship, is filled with helium and floats into the sky carrying lightweight turbines. From a high altitude, it can harness stronger, steadier winds and send the electricity it generates back to the ground through a tether.<\/p>\n

The craft can also be moved quickly between sites, making it suitable for providing electricity in remote locations such as deserts, highlands, islands and disaster zones beyond the reach of a power grid.<\/p>\n

The S4000 was developed by Beijing start-up Sawes Energy Technology in collaboration with Tsinghua University and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe craft, roughly the length of a Boeing 747, is filled with helium and harnesses winds at a high altitude to generate electricity. Photo: CCTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has flown an airborne wind energy system to 4,000 metres (13,123 feet) above sea level and generated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[159033,286737,4177,21181,607,286736,5302,273,156983,286735,111,139,69,286734,147,33381],"class_list":["post-582097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-aerospace-information-research-institute","tag-airborne-wind-energy-system","tag-beijing","tag-cctv","tag-china","tag-china-energy-engineering-corporation","tag-chinese-academy-of-sciences","tag-environment","tag-high-altitude-wind-power","tag-hunan-daily","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sawes-energy-technology","tag-science","tag-tsinghua-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}