IEEE Spectrum: Floating Wind Turbines Could Expand Offshore Possibilities
To take advantage of the wind blowing over deeper water, there is movement now to use floating wind turbines as a way of avoiding the need to anchor into a deep sea bed. According to one company, the biggest turbines currently available could feasibly work on such floating rigs. Marine Innovation & Technology's WindFloat can theoretically support giant 5-MW turbines. The floating rig, made up essentially of three platforms with the turbine tower extending from one of them, is designed to withstand the rigors of a "100-year storm," according to a paper published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy earlier this month (by company employees). And according to Principle Power, who has purchased the technology for WindFloat, several projects are in the works that could see turbines in the water by 2011 or 2012... Other companies, though, are already steps ahead: Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil recently completed construction of its first floating turbine several miles off the coast of Norway. Dubbed the Hywind, the company will spend the next two years testing the turbine before moving forward with further installations.
Marine Innovation & Technology's WindFloat can theoretically support giant 5-MW turbines. The floating rig, made up essentially of three platforms with the turbine tower extending from one of them, is designed to withstand the rigors of a "100-year storm," according to a paper published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy earlier this month (by company employees). And according to Principle Power, who has purchased the technology for WindFloat, several projects are in the works that could see turbines in the water by 2011 or 2012...
Other companies, though, are already steps ahead: Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil recently completed construction of its first floating turbine several miles off the coast of Norway. Dubbed the Hywind, the company will spend the next two years testing the turbine before moving forward with further installations.
According to UPI, the WindFloat prototype is being "built in collaboration with electricity company Energia de Portugal should be in the water by the end of 2012". Principle Power has a floating wind project planned for off the Oregon coast too, but it's in the early stages.
Only the worst storms are deemed newsworthy and no one blames the wind industry for its pitiful failure to manage and control this abundant resource. It seems the wind industry has the media bought and paid for - a bit like BP - and soon we'll have our equivalent of US Republican leaders apologising to the wind industry for others blaming it for not making the wind safe.
It's time we got the wind industry off our backs and force them to make our wind resources safe by capturing at least 50% of ground level wind and prevent it doing any damage in the future. Of course there will always be some gushers/hurricanes that are difficult to control but that does not excuse the wind industry for its extraordinary wastage and corporate negligence in ensuring we have safe wind for all.
Bragging about record windfarm development is only so much wind industry PR spin trying to distract us from the woeful reality that the wind industry has wasted more energy than the oil industry ever did. Hell only the solar panel industry comes even close in its profligate wastage of our natural resources. Index of Frank's Diaries
i'd personally like to apologise for only harvesting 2.3 kw from my roof.
and not wearing white clothes for albedo.
also. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Still working on how to fund it with carbon credits though...... "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
The new clippers probably need to work easily with shipping containers. So 19th century clippers won't likely work. Plus, I've no clue how to start a business,so lots of hurdles.
The well has been gushing for 72 days now in the Gulf and it seems to have become status quo here in the States -- the way things have to be.
fresh air, clean water, non-poisonous agriculture, the just don't pay (the few) as well...
"i asked my baby for a drink of water, she gave me a glass of gasoline." some old blues guy. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
