The Race to Build Wind Farms That Float on the Open Sea

[Disir]

The makers of wind turbines have, for many decades now, labored to harness one of the mightiest forces in nature. They’ve moved from onshore to offshore sites, building ever larger rotors with huge blades, each one now longer than a row of 10 London buses. And they’ve stacked those rotors atop dizzying towers, constantly reaching for new, blustery heights.

In their endless quest to capture the most reliably energetic winds, engineers are now moving further out into the ocean, to areas of deeper water where especially strong winds are known to blow. For offshore wind turbines—whose fixed-bottom foundations can only extend down 60 meters—such areas have long been off-limits. But a new generation of floating machines looks set to change that.

The potential bounty is huge. According to industry body Wind Europe, 80 percent of the offshore wind resource in European waters is in places too deep to make today’s fixed-bottom turbines an economically sensible choice. Deep water has also prevented the installation of large offshore wind farms off the western coast of the US, for example.

The Race to Build Wind Farms That Float on the Open Sea

There’s huge potential to generate renewable energy far out in the ocean. But designing turbines that can survive rough waters isn’t exactly a breeze.

www.wired.co.uk

So, single use plastic is a no-no because......oceans but putting a bunch of wind turbines is better than sliced bread? What happens if there is a major storm?

 

[JGalt]

The makers of wind turbines have, for many decades now, labored to harness one of the mightiest forces in nature. They’ve moved from onshore to offshore sites, building ever larger rotors with huge blades, each one now longer than a row of 10 London buses. And they’ve stacked those rotors atop dizzying towers, constantly reaching for new, blustery heights.

In their endless quest to capture the most reliably energetic winds, engineers are now moving further out into the ocean, to areas of deeper water where especially strong winds are known to blow. For offshore wind turbines—whose fixed-bottom foundations can only extend down 60 meters—such areas have long been off-limits. But a new generation of floating machines looks set to change that.

The potential bounty is huge. According to industry body Wind Europe, 80 percent of the offshore wind resource in European waters is in places too deep to make today’s fixed-bottom turbines an economically sensible choice. Deep water has also prevented the installation of large offshore wind farms off the western coast of the US, for example.

The Race to Build Wind Farms That Float on the Open Sea

There’s huge potential to generate renewable energy far out in the ocean. But designing turbines that can survive rough waters isn’t exactly a breeze.

www.wired.co.uk

So, single use plastic is a no-no because......oceans but putting a bunch of wind turbines is better than sliced bread? What happens if there is a major storm?

What happens if there is a major storm? Salvage rights. If it washes up in my yard, I own it.

 

[johngaltshrugged]

Major storms in the North Atlantic? What kind of crazy talk is that?

I totally endorse this idea & don't see how anything could ever possibly go horribly wrong.

 

[excalibur]

Such a stupid idea.

 

[Libby von H]

The makers of wind turbines have, for many decades now, labored to harness one of the mightiest forces in nature. They’ve moved from onshore to offshore sites, building ever larger rotors with huge blades, each one now longer than a row of 10 London buses. And they’ve stacked those rotors atop dizzying towers, constantly reaching for new, blustery heights.

In their endless quest to capture the most reliably energetic winds, engineers are now moving further out into the ocean, to areas of deeper water where especially strong winds are known to blow. For offshore wind turbines—whose fixed-bottom foundations can only extend down 60 meters—such areas have long been off-limits. But a new generation of floating machines looks set to change that.

The potential bounty is huge. According to industry body Wind Europe, 80 percent of the offshore wind resource in European waters is in places too deep to make today’s fixed-bottom turbines an economically sensible choice. Deep water has also prevented the installation of large offshore wind farms off the western coast of the US, for example.

The Race to Build Wind Farms That Float on the Open Sea

There’s huge potential to generate renewable energy far out in the ocean. But designing turbines that can survive rough waters isn’t exactly a breeze.

www.wired.co.uk

So, single use plastic is a no-no because......oceans but putting a bunch of wind turbines is better than sliced bread? What happens if there is a major storm?

Okay, folks , complaining about single-use plastic and mooning over wind turbines


" Amazon generated 709 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2021. This is a 18% increase of Oceana’s 2020 estimate of 599 million pounds and is enough plastic to circle the Earth more than 800 times in the form of air pillows. Oceana found, based on data from a peer-reviewed study on plastic waste pollution published in Science in 2020, that up to 26 million pounds of this plastic waste will end up in the world’s waterways and seas."

You are about to be shot to death and you are worried it will muss your hair.

 

[justoffal]

Such a stupid idea.

200 mph winds ... 60 foot waves.....Goodbye turbine.

 

[elektra]

all for a trickle of electricity?

Why would they do this, they do not produce much if any electricity.

Who could possibly profit from printing $10 trillion dollars a year? 5% of that $10 trillion dollars automatically belongs to the Federal Reserve, that prints the money.

Who else would profit? Politicians? We already see the politicians going on "vacations" to the climate and green energy conferences, these "vacations" are worth tens of thousands, to the richest places in the world.

How else would a politician profit? By campaign donations? By being paid for speeches? Or maybe a book deal?

How are those trillions distributed? Subsidies they call tax breaks. $100 million dollar tax packages that can be sold to another corporation like Exxon or Shell. Solar and Wind companies do not apply tax credits to the profit they may make, they sell the tax credit to a corporation. So, the oil companies profit by buy a tax deduction!

How else are the trillions distributed, through banks, financial institutions?

Who else profits? Wall st? Buying and selling the natural resources that are used, by the millions of tons, on the stock market

The race is for extreme profits, taken from taxpayers, and given to the rich.

 

[Crick]

The makers of wind turbines have, for many decades now, labored to harness one of the mightiest forces in nature. They’ve moved from onshore to offshore sites, building ever larger rotors with huge blades, each one now longer than a row of 10 London buses. And they’ve stacked those rotors atop dizzying towers, constantly reaching for new, blustery heights.

In their endless quest to capture the most reliably energetic winds, engineers are now moving further out into the ocean, to areas of deeper water where especially strong winds are known to blow. For offshore wind turbines—whose fixed-bottom foundations can only extend down 60 meters—such areas have long been off-limits. But a new generation of floating machines looks set to change that.

The potential bounty is huge. According to industry body Wind Europe, 80 percent of the offshore wind resource in European waters is in places too deep to make today’s fixed-bottom turbines an economically sensible choice. Deep water has also prevented the installation of large offshore wind farms off the western coast of the US, for example.

The Race to Build Wind Farms That Float on the Open Sea

There’s huge potential to generate renewable energy far out in the ocean. But designing turbines that can survive rough waters isn’t exactly a breeze.

www.wired.co.uk

So, single use plastic is a no-no because......oceans but putting a bunch of wind turbines is better than sliced bread? What happens if there is a major storm?

They feather their props and batten down the hatches. The North Sea is filled with much more massive structures and complex that have been successfully riding out some of the worst weather on the planet for decades now without difficulty. You overstate the risk. And the failure of a wind turbine is not going to result in the sort of pollution that results from single use plastics. You're comparing apples to oranges.

 

[elektra]

They feather their props and batten down the hatches. The North Sea is filled with much more massive structures and complex that have been successfully riding out some of the worst weather on the planet for decades now without difficulty. You overstate the risk. And the failure of a wind turbine is not going to result in the sort of pollution that results from single use plastics. You're comparing apples to oranges.

The failures of wind turbines do not result in the same pollution as single use plastic, because single use plastics get thrown away, on land, and wind turbines will be out to sea, polluting with micro-plastics. Wind Turbines are literal garbage. No different than if everyone drove a 1968 cadillac fleetwood everyday.

 

[Libby von H]

200 mph winds ... 60 foot waves.....Goodbye turbine.

Kills birds, greatly increases pollution , easy target for terrorism

 

[justoffal]

Kills birds, greatly increases pollution , easy target for terrorism

In my town we have a GE 2.5 megawatt turbine . It stands about 185 feet high with the blade upright. It is nicknamed the meat grinder. Every three or four months they have to shut down and pressure wash the blood, meat and feathers off of the thing.