The road to commercialization was longer and riskier than what they hoped for.

• Makani spent seven years at Alphabet, during which time, their technology advanced from a 20kW demonstrator kite, to a utility-scale kite capable of generating 600kW.
• After leaving X to become an independent business, the founders' focus shifted to becoming commercially viable and with the support of Shell, they were able to demonstrate the first flights of a utility-scale energy kite system from a floating platform off the coast off Norway.
• Creating an entirely new kind of wind energy technology means facing business challenges as well as engineering challenges.
• Despite strong technical progress, the road to commercialization was longer and riskier than what they hoped for.

The world was changing and the use of electricity from renewable sources was rising.

• Makani’s energy kite was incredibly unusual. It turned like an aerobatic glider and sent electricity down a tether. In its final incarnation it did all this autonomously from a floating platform anchored in deep water.
• To create the unique machine, the team had to solve hundreds of problems and push boundaries in aerodynamics, avionics, electric motors, and more.
• While they were solving technical problems, the world around them was changing.
• Global use of electricity from renewable sources had been steadily rising and the cost of wind and solar dropped dramatically.