Oregon’s Daily Journal of Commerce has written an article on eWind’s technology:

“A Beaverton tech startup has designed a new system that can produce up to four times more energy than comparable static windmill generators.

The company, eWind Solutions, has designed a Kevlar and composite material aero-kite that will swoop figure-8s in the sky at heights up to 500 feet to produce energy. Tethered by an ultra-strong extruded polymer cord attached to a generating drum, the back-and-forth motion causes the cord to thread around the drum, rotating it like an old-fashioned lawn-mower pull-start.

Wind speed above ground level typically increases, sometimes dramatically. A seven mile-per-hour surface wind, for example, could easily be 15 miles per hour or more at 150 feet or higher. By floating the kite at a greater height, the system becomes more efficient than a windmill.”