Large Offshore Wind Turbines Under Development

The Technology Review has a nice article about large offshore wind turbines, located out of sight, over the horizon, that may overcome the NIMBY-ism that is limiting efforts to deploy wind turbines within vision of the shoreline.

GE is partnering with DOE to develop 5-7 megawatt wind turbines by 2009.  These turbines should make wind power more economical, because the cost of building and installing offshore wind farms depends primarily on the number of turbines, not the size.  The new turbines will be mounted to towers rising 90 to 95 meters and will have rotors measuring 140 meters in diameter. 

The turbines would be installed where the water depths are up 50 meters, too deep to economically use towers sitting on the sea floor.  Instead MIT proposes using "tension leg" platforms that oil companies use for deep-water rigs.  The wind turbines and towers would be assembled at a shipyard and placed on top of large floating cylinders ballasted on the bottom with concrete to keep the structure from tipping over.  After towing out to sea the cylinder is anchored to the sea floor with cables.

See the entire article for more details.

Comments

[brianthesmurf]

Even more radical (and still feasible) is the Hywind concept from Norsk hydro. Essentially floating windmills that can be anchored far enough off-shore to completely negate the nimby factor and to avoid problems with local wildlife. The technology is based on current off-shore know-how and the proposed turbines are in the 5-10MW range.

They can be towed back to shore for major maintenance.

See:
http://www.hydro.com/en/press_room/news/archive/2005_11/hywind_en.html

The promotional video is way cool.

[Alex]

This is exactly what I've been saying for years - reopen the UK's shipyards to exploit the continental shelf windresource.

[amazingdrx]

That's right Norway is doing it. No need for another boondoggle that delays adoption of offshore wind, pretending more research is needed.

(How about getting behind it RFK jr? Redeem yourself after your traitorous action in the cape Wind scenario)

Will it replace offshore oil? Yep.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/5/8/0317/98951/#4

Even oil that is not actually there! Hehey.

[Jeff Olney]

What's newsworthy isn't the size of the turbine; Enercon already has 6.0 MW prototypes ready to go, Vestas has 4.5 MW turbines with 120 meter rotors. It's the U.S. Department Of Energy actually shelling out $29 million for this project.

[Mel.]

I noticed that, too. Say what you want about the idiot awareness of the American public when it comes to this issue, but at least the government APPEARS to be committing some actual resources to prospective solutions.

Their contribution of 17 million to depolymerization projects was also a pittance in the grand scheme, but pretty impressive as a likewise footnote.

[amazingdrx]

"APPEARS" is the operative word.

[Mel.]

Absolutely. But money does talk. Regardless of how little it might actually be saying.

[George Krejci]

By the end of the millennium 2000 this earth shall be without oil, gas, coal, and uranium. Experiments with fusion so far yielded no major results. The only remaining sources of energy are solar and wind. Solar energy is not very significant. I suggest one million wind towers be erected in the oceans along the United States coastlines. Electrical energy from these wind generators should reach about 1000 gigawatts which is equivalent to the power generated by approximately 1000 nuclear plants. This amount of electricity will heat homes and produce hydrogen for our future cars.

[amazingdrx]

Actually George wind, water (wave,river, tidal current), and solar distributed throughout the country and offshore will more than cover our energy needs.

Distributed generation and storage using rooftop solar and small to medium wind power would get over half of the power we need.

Then large scale floating wind/wave power installations and large wind systems in remote areas with high wind like the northern great plains could supply the remainder.

In the near future (a few decades)something like room temperature superconduction could make solar panels, transmission lines, appliances, electric notors, generators, energy storage rings, batteries all so efficient that large wind and wave power systems could be dismantled and recycled.