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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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Strong sea breezes offer one of the best options for generating electricity from the wind. And here's the bonus: since humans like to cluster on the coast, offshore wind tends to reach places that need more electricity.
But building a massive turbine and anchoring it firmly to the seafloor is expensive. So wind power is restricted to shallow seas. Hence, the scarcity of offshore wind turbines around the world—and its complete absence so far from U.S. waters.
Naval architects writing in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy aim to change that. After testing options in a wave tank, they found that floating platforms can support turbines capable of generating five megawatts of power. This is no mean feat considering such turbines are 70 meters tall and have blades the size of a football field.
The architects current platform relies, in essence, on three floating legs—much like a deepwater oil production platform.
But unlike an oil rig, when a wind turbine goes bad, it just adds wreckage to the seafloor, instead of fouling local waters with oil. Perhaps offshore wind is the safer use of coastal resources.
—David Biello, with narration by Christie Nicholson
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15 Comments
Add CommentDoes anyone know what kind of negative impacts to the ocean's ecosystem would result due to the vibrations from a series of wind turbines? Would the vibrations interfere with whale, dolphin, or porpoise inner sonar?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProbably, but not as much as acidification from global warming!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can only imagine how unsightly the floating turbines would be. I have seen the oil derricks off the Santa Barbara coast and consider them a blight. There has to be a better and more sophisticated means of creating energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"sfletch", there is a better and even cheaper way to create electricity from the ocean's, wind, current, and tide. Those turbines do not need to be propped up where they can only be used to collect wind. The turbines can be placed right on the top of the ocean and collect power the current and tides create. They can encase the metal part of the generator turbine in carbon fiber, and that does not corrode, rust, or leak. The tide turbines can even be placed far enough apart where they will not interfere with shipping. One tide turbine can probably create five times more power than one wind turbine. There is always tidal waves in the ocean and the current on the east coast will always flow North.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA person would believe that America is looking for goofy stupid things, and building really ugly disfunctional electric cars, so they can delay converting over to cheap, clean, safe energy and prolong the use of dirty destructive fossil fuels. If you have read all these articles on clean energy like I have, you may see the same pattern.
Wave Generators are a good method...lower impact for sure.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article reminds me of the NOVA project (Novel Offshore Vertical Axis) - a consortium for building an offshore wind turbine capable of producing 1 GW! Does anyone know if this is a floating wind turbine? The project site is http://www.nova-project.co.uk/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA Floating Wind Turbine is no different than a Teathered Sailing Ship, and can be a thing of Great Beauty
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHmm, given the size of the wind turbine, I thought the 1GW power would be produced by a single wind turbine, which really puzzled me, but it turns out that each wind turbine will produce between 5 to 10 MW and the total output power will be 1 GW.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislet's all get real - major power from major generators - think nuclear.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisas far a vibrations goes have you ever heard of sound dampening headphones, if bose can make headphones that dont let you hear the airplane i bet someone could dampen anyvibrations that a windfarm would put in the ocean.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFlags and banners are good feng shui, one could include wind turbines in this category if they are brightly coloured. Replacing dark coloured oil rigs that pierce the heavens with these good omen structures could only improve the fortunes of Santa Barbara and other coastal areas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile better with it's 24k death's/ yr in the US and 150k/yr hospital stays, far better, less costly is 1 million of wind generators on homes, buiildings. Since these customers pay/save retail utility costs they are 2-3xs as cost effective and don't waste the material for transmission lines as they use the ones already there.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese only cost $1.5k/kw , magnets4less.com and 2 kw handles a normal eff home's needs and another kw would charge an electric car. Thus saving the homeowner $150-300/month in energy costs making pack back rather quick.
Same with home solar, now PV panels are under $2k/kw , sunelec.com.
Plus with so many they average out needing little back, far less than big nuke or even coal does.
Nukes can help but they need to be far less expensive/kw, smaller size and mass produced like the Hyperion.
anchor them with a loose cable, and build them on a weighted floating platform. let them bend in the wind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis method is especially effective with waterlogged generator below sea level. A mechanical drive to get on the float and the capillary surface, thus maximizing the gravitational effect.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis method is especially effective with waterlogged generator below sea level. A mechanical drive to get on the float and the capillary surface, thus maximizing the gravitational effect.
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