Makani (company) facts for kids
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Wind power |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Defunct | 19 February 2020 |
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Key people
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Saul Griffith, Corwin Hardham, Donald Montague, Damon Vander Lind |
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Number of employees
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20+ |
| Parent | Alphabet Inc. |
Makani Technologies LLC was a company based in Alameda, California. They worked on creating special flying machines called airborne wind turbines. These machines were designed to make electricity from the wind. Makani started in 2006 and was bought by Google in 2013. Later, in 2020, Google's parent company, Alphabet, decided to close Makani down.
The Story of Makani
Makani was started in 2006 by three people: Saul Griffith, Don Montague, and Corwin Hardham. They received money from Google.org to help them find cheaper ways to make clean energy. The name "Makani" means "wind" in the Hawaiian language. Sadly, Corwin Hardham passed away in 2012.
In May 2013, Makani Power became part of Google. It joined a special part of Google called Google X, which works on big, futuristic ideas. Later, in 2015, a new CEO named Fort Felker joined Makani. He used to be in charge of a big wind technology center.
In December 2016, Makani tested a large prototype (a test model). It was a 600 kilowatt (kW) machine with a wing span of 28 meters. This was a big step for the company.
From August 2018, Makani started testing its energy kites in a special area on the Big Island of Hawaii. This allowed them to try out their technology in real-world conditions.
In February 2019, Makani became its own company again, but it was still owned by Alphabet. Around the same time, a big energy company called Royal Dutch Shell invested money in Makani. They also started working together to help Makani grow its business.
In 2019, one of their offshore energy kites had an accident during testing. The wing did not land correctly on its platform, and the energy kite was lost. The company looked into what happened to learn from the event.
In February 2020, Alphabet decided to close Makani. They explained that even though the technology was improving, it would take too long and be too risky to make it a successful business.
After closing, Makani shared what they learned. In September 2020, they released a report called the "Energy Kite Collection." This included their research, computer code, flight records, and videos. They also released a documentary film about their project. Makani also made their patents (special inventions) free for anyone to use. This means other companies can use Makani's ideas without getting into legal trouble.
How Makani's Technology Worked
Makani wanted to create renewable energy that was not expensive. They used special flying wings that were tied to the ground. These wings flew in big circles high in the sky. As they flew, small wind turbines on the wings spun around. This spinning created electricity. This method is known as crosswind kite power.
An inventor named Miles Loyd first thought of this idea in 1980. He believed that for very large projects, it might be better to have the generators on the ground. Many other companies that work on kite power, like KiteGen in Italy, keep their generators on the ground. Makani's unique approach was to have the generators right on the flying wing itself. The electricity would then travel down the tether (the cable) to the ground.
See also
