Wind Power That Floats

Using the 70% of the planet that is not inhabited for wind power siting is definitely the right approach!

I wonder if these folks have read the Phoenix Project, by Harry Braun?

http://www.phoenixprojectfoundation.us/

Building wind turbines a long distance from where the energy is needed requiring miles of cable , and situating them on massive epensive floating platforms , needing thousands of tons of balast does not make for cheaper wind energy . If you scale the size of the floation device shown in the picture up to that of megawatt size turbines , each turbine would require a ridiculously big platform . This is not economical .

Underwater tidal turbines would be much cheaper , and would not be visible at all providing a predictable supply of energy . Like the one just installed in the mouth of Strangford Loch in Northern Ireland .

Or perhaps wind turbines could be situated on the same towers as tidal turbines to reduce the cost . There isn't a lack of space on land for wind turbines , it just takes time for people to get used to them and to see the benefits . There are plenty of wasted spaces on rooftops for turbines .

I find it interesting that spokespeople talk about the carbon-emissions trading markets. Right now there are no carbon-emissions trading markets, what makes them so sure there will be one in the future? A lot of the stuff out there right now is looking promising but unless you can compete with oil on a fair footing it will never be more than just a nitch market.

With a good mass reproducible modular design, this could be a top contender.

By the way, carbon-emissions trading are subsidies. They are artificially imposed by the government.

What about moving a manufacturing to the platform so that generated energy can be consumed in the same place? There would be no need for expensive undewater cables.

Wave action would seem to be a challenge to securely anchoring an off-shore wind turbine, unless the floating structure was designed to minimize the effects of that wave action. An interesting challenge would be to design energy absorbing hydrodynamics - essentially creating a dual fuel power station.

IF we ARE going to be a hydrogen economy... then why are not we having the most obvious and elementary of discussions? Generation and storage of hydrogen offshore (wind, electric, electrolysis, hydrogen) seemes like the greenest technology possible. It trades the transmission losses back to the coast for the electrolysis-based conversion loss.

Offshore wind and solar power generating arrays could become the largest manmade structures in history, there are scales of economy and fewer logistical constraints compared to land based solar and wind gen facilities. There are even financial and regulatory incentives to offshoring hydrogen generation. Given the hoopla over gas terminals and the flexibility in sites possible of the offshore facilities, hydrogen pipelines may be better than tanker storage and transport in some places.

Couldn't they build a structure that supports win  turbine on the top + solar panel on the base + wave power below the surface. They could maximize the energy potential of such structures.

How do they manage to transfer the power to the mainland to use?  Recall that you're moving high voltage through seawater over tens of miles.  Is it transferred as AC and if so at what frequency?
Obviously they do it, but that area gets little attention.  Usually the pumping losses for electricity are pretty large over long distances.

I say millionaire waterfront property owners are just going to have to get used to seeing Windmills a few miles offshore.

As I recall - the Atlantic tends to get a lot of heavy weather in late summer and into late fall. The occassional Nor-Easter is a mean old cuss too.

Do these floatilla's have the guts to stand up to a Cat 4 or 5 storm - year in and year out?

The Pacific is quieter of course, but further south there are more sever storms, and the biggest Winter storms out of the bay of Alaska can kick up the surf too.

Kowabunga moondoggie!

Being competitive with oil is only going to get easier as gas prices go to $4.00 / gallon and beyond.

Have to agree with earlier comment on those who casually dismiss the idea out of hand as not cost effective. Really? let's see your analysis then. THis seems well worth a look to me.

architecturally a wind turbine on top of a house is hideous. it would never happen

There are many people who have to understand that the cost of oil is so much more than what you see at the pump, and to do a full tech review we must take into account the hidden costs. One is supporting all these countries who violate human rights and use the oil money to fund terrorism.
Or how about reducing this out of control military spending, which amounts to about 500 billion dollars a year plus 12 or so billion a month going into Iraq. The money is there lets not get hung up on that issue. These turbines have to be part of a overall sustainable network.Think about the hidden benefits
They are much safer than nuclear power plants and can cut down on air pollution not to mention the global warming. Also Jobs and a better future for the children. I hope people wake up, the oceans are collapsing before our very eyes, we can't afford to wait for the sky to fall.This is the most important issue facing the world today, yet it is tied to all others.I also believe they can double the power generation from each platform.

It was great reading this article about forward thinking alternative energy companies.  However it is kind of sad reading "Dutch floating-turbine developer Blue H Technologies" and " SWAY, based in Bergen, Norway" because I hardly ever read about U.S. based companies leading the way.

Has the U.S., a country that borders the worlds great oceans, completely lagged behind in these technologies?  Has 8 years of the Bush/Cheaney administration brought us back to the alternative energy dark ages?

Japan has experimented with the idea.  Gives new meaning to the term "offshoring."  Don't bother sending the power to the mainland -- use it right there.  Keep the mainland for nature preserves and farming.

This eventually would become a sub-contract Power retrieval Bigtime Operations Scenario. Even when a Power Company manages itself it finds it can do it cheaper by sub-leases agreements, this is what has led to Off-Shore Leasing in the first place. The same will become evident with any Health Care Proposition as a New Policy where Sub-Control of every aspect is divided into categories which serve different ages and different medical prognosis so it is heading towards a government expenditure of losing its control on all American's Health care, esp. the military which has been sub-contracted by non-military hospitals and doctors for a long while now (at least twenty-five years). Military Base Security Operations has sub-contracted maybe you have noticed that civilian business security opportunities has employees at entrance and exit gates sometimes real military armed personnel but not always. Sub-contracting is what ghovernment has learned to accomplish, nothing ever is done the way in which it was originally written by government when they voted on the issue. Health Care will become a feather in the wind, taxpayers will be paying for sub-contracted Health Care.

Meanwhile, Medicare and Medicaid each will find it more difficult, doctors will stop participating with the program and then the ultimate disaster - State Health Departments will stop administering and that was where the lower cost per person was occurring. When sub-contracting begins the population will find that more facilities will become necessary and the cost will surge on every taxpayer yet to start working, their children will be paying for facility contracting long before they ever experience the inside of one and the elderly will be being turned down for medical treatment because they are to old just like my grandmother that died of Pancreatic Cancer and she was healthy all her life just because of a water board having a sub-contracted purification operation her water supply got to much cancer causing chemical within it as listed by the EPA and its my bet your million dollar water purification facility will one day also be sub-contracted or your city will order water from another city 20-50 miles away.

Win Turbines do what they were made to do and what else they would accomplish for humanity is entirely up to whom is managing their power production. If all the power is not being used then it is sold to a power grid company whom resells it to other companies and somwhere along the sales line are consumer's and small business. If there were ever a need of power generation off-shore it would be to supply underwater construction and operations of underwater living facilities. What real difference could there be without having to live on dry land when all conveniences can be availablke underwater in a facility made from volcanic glass slabs fuse-welded together to support a internal atmospheric condition. Floating airports has been a topic for a while now even with casinos and wouldn't the Obama Administration like to admit that off-shore gambling underwater would be a better place to vacation even during a typhone or hurricane arrival and departure via a super luxious submarine.