Makani's kite is steered. This one just needs to stay aloft. Launching it is just a matter of a wind-up spool on a windvane-like small rotating platform (no more than a few m high)

I know how it works, what are you arguing for or against?

You wrote

> Kites like Makani's are autonomous

They wrote

> Makani's kite is steered. This one just needs to stay aloft

The implication is that you are suggesting that autonomous steering is neat and the other person is suggesting that not needing steering is neater.

Also, Makani was steered into the ground literally and figuratively. It's been cancelled. It will never do what it said it could do because its creators won't keep doing it. It's over.

No, I just meant what I wrote.

I'm simply agreeing with the guy that said that launching is expensive. It's indeed the hardest part for any kite energy system, I know this from experience, I spent several years in this industry.

If you could live with having to launch and land the system manually, that would change the equation completely.

> Kites like Makani's are autonomous

The are also cancelled, gone, don't exist, will never happen