October 2019 Kitemill started a project called AWE cofounded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Kitemill plans to commercialize its technology through a minimum viable product (MPV) approach and stepwise upscaling of the kite turbines (30 kW/150 kW/500 kW). Kitemill has secured a customer for the world's first demonstration park of five 30 kW units that will be built during this project at Lista (Norway).

The overall success criterion for this project is to establish demonstration parks and accumulate operation hours on the kite system, as this is a key enabler for commercial introduction. The market opportunities are abundant; as an example, our kites can replace thousands of decommissioned conventional wind turbines offshore where the foundations are no longer certified to carry heavy loads. If successful, the business is easily scalable and the turnover may reach €97m by 2024, while at the same time mitigate greenhouse gas emissions at low investments.

The AWE project consists of 4 work packages :

WP1 Technical development
WP2 Operational development
WP3 Market development
WP4 Project Management

The main project results will be subject for exploration through commercialization, but it also contain two public reports:

1. Communication and dissimination plan

2. A public report of permission work for the first customer

3. A public report of permission work in new national markets

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Picture from one of the milestones in the project. Installation and first operation of the second AWE system at Lista: