Kite Power Systems (KPS) (www.kitepowersystems.com), a company developing innovative kite power technology in Scotland, has secured a £2 million equity investment from the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), which is the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.

This makes SIB the latest investor in KPS; it joins E.ON, Schlumberger and Shell Technology Ventures, who announced a combined £5 million investment in the company in December 2016.

KPS confirmed in February 2017 that it had re-located from Essex and consolidated all of its activities in Scotland, establishing a research and test facility near Stranraer and a head office in Glasgow.

Its power system features two kites that fly up to 1,500ft on the end of tethers that generate electricity as they spool out.

This technology has the potential to transform the global offshore wind market, as it is much simpler to make and set up — and therefore much cheaper — than conventional wind turbines.

Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “Scotland has a long and proud history of innovation, and Kite Power Systems’ pioneering approach to harnessing wind energy shows great promise.”

KPS has already built a team of 20 — mainly engineers — and aims to be 34-strong by the end of 2017. The company’s management and design engineers are based in Glasgow, with a further team of test and development engineers based at the test facility, 8km south-east of Stranraer.

The company has been successfully flight-testing its current 40kW system over the past few weeks and has secured planning consent to deploy a new 500kW power system, following delivery of the completed model in August.

This will lead to a planned onshore demonstration array of multiple 500kW systems in the next three or four years, elsewhere in Scotland. Thereafter, KPS will develop a 3MW onshore system at the test facility.