Airborne Wind Energy is a promising technology that is becoming the point of interest for many applications. One market in which the AWE systems can open a path as a renewable distributed generator is in offgrid communities or camps. Nowadays, this market is dominated by fossil fuel energy like diesel generators. Even though the diesel is cheap, in some cases the complexity to transport the diesel can increase its price considerably. A military camp is an example of this cases. AWE systems designed by the start-up Kitepower can offer a solution to this type of application. Nevertheless, there are some points in the AWE mechanism that should be improved. The most important of these aspects is the cyclic power production that generates a power gap.

This thesis compares solutions as 2 KP systems, other distributed generators (DG) and storage systems (SS) to find the best option to mitigate the power gap. For the integration of the components with the KP system, microgrids designs and layouts were studied. This led to one of the most important things in a microgrid that is the SS sizing. Here, also a method to size the SS to fill the power gap is proposed based on the distribution of power generated by the KP system each cycle. To test the sizing and the operating of the system, a model was built in Simulink. The results show that the method finds a power balance between the power produced and the power generated.

Finally, an efficient integrated system is proposed to mitigate the power gap of the KP system. Additionally, a method is developed to start the design and size additional DERs for future offgrid microgrid projects.

Research into the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) has been progressing over the last few years due to the large shift in design constraints for large floating offshore wind turbines by leveraging tools and experience from research beginning in the 1970s and lasting until the HAWT established market dominance in the 1990s. The beginning studies looking into the feasibility of large VAWT turbines on offshore floating platforms have been largely positive and suggest a large cost savings when comparing to equivalent HAWT turbines. These savings assume certain platform cost reductions as well as ease of operations and maintenance due to the possibility of systems being removed, like the active yaw system, and ease of access to significant components such as the gearbox and generator. In order to realize these cost gains, and perhaps identify more, it is necessary to improve the aerodynamic control of the rotor. @en