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Harnessing the power of high altitude winds - the biggest energy resource yet unexploited by humankind

Objective

Wind is our second largest energy source after solar. The conservative estimates state that wind could provide us with 1,800 TW of energy—100X more than the current global demand for power. But most of this wind is at high altitudes, and is available almost anywhere on the planet 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
The conventional wind turbines, although having improved immensely over the past decade, have hit a technological plateau: they cannot be made much taller to reach the strong, fast winds that blow at altitudes of 400+ meters.
To address this challenge, we developed Skypull—a system made of an autonomous flying device (drone) connected by a tether to a ground power generator—which generates low cost electricity from abundant high altitude winds. Uniquely among the competition, we created and patented the highly efficient design of the flying device.
We foresee incremental development over several variants to reach a 1 MW Skypull SP3 system by 2021, capable of generating electricity at €40-50/MWh. With that device in place we will grow the revenues from €2m in 2020 (3 units sold in Switzerland) to €140.3m in 2030 (200 units sold globally), with an IRR of 24%+.
We will work closely with the Swiss energy utility AEM SA, that abandoned its plans on implementation of wind turbines and decided to explore the potential of Skypull. We have also built a broad partner network to build Skypull.
The purpose of this Phase 1 project is to carry out the market and commercial feasibility for a reduced Skypull SP2 10-100 KW demonstrator, so that it could be sold in the off-grid contexts, generating first cash flows for the company to co-finance further development of a 1 MW variant.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017

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Coordinator

SKYPULL SA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
VIA ALLA STAMPA 49
6967 DINO
Switzerland

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Ticino Ticino
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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