It is developing giant off-shore wind turbines, biomass power plants (including projects in Florida and Washington with Duke Energy), and, with its Ausra acquisition, solar thermal power plants.
Fully working models will be larger and, Makani hopes, be able to generate 600 kW. It hopes the cost of the power generated will initially be competitive with off-shore wind farms.
"We simply can't compete on cost efficiency with a gas-fired plant, though I think that we will be able to compete with off-shore wind and tidal projects, " says Skilhagen.