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Lake-Wind Power

Posted by garym on March 20, 2007 - 2:57pm

Looking at that Ontario Wind map, I can't help but notice how the Excellent to Astounding ranges are respectively the middle of Georgian Bay and just due west a little from our own SBP ...

Sclavounos estimates that building and installing his floating support system should cost a third as much as constructing the type of truss tower now planned for deep-water installations. Installing the tethers, the electrical system, and the cable to the shore is standard procedure. Because of the strong offshore winds, the floating turbines should produce up to twice as much electricity per year (per installed megawatt) as wind turbines now in operation. And because the wind turbines are not permanently attached to the ocean floor, they are a movable asset. If a company with 400 wind turbines serving the Boston area needs more power for New York City, it can unhook some of the floating turbines and tow them south.
[ 'Invisible' giant wind turbines | Science Blog ]

They call them 'invisible' because, from the shore, they are beyond the horizon, so there goes that common complaint about wind beaters; you could even scale them up bigger than what we'd allow on land since the only folks to see it would be the seagulls and the fish, and the scientists tell us off-shore wind stations may actually be safer for the birds!

This isn't science fiction. Denmark is doing it today -- so why not here? A stately floatilla of megawatt power mills would seem cheap, very clean, overall quite reasonable, practical, desirable and doable ... any engineering types care to comment?

This goes well with my earlier posting about off-shore mining rigs in Indonesia, and I remember I did write to them to ask "Why not mine in the Great Lakes?" but received no answer -- can you imagine, Tobermory as the Energy Capital of Ontario and Wiarton as a motherlode mining town?! :)

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever
Where would YOU spend that $30,000? ›

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Tethered Wind-Power?

Submitted by garym on March 4, 2008 - 4:03pm.

It's probably too early-adopter in the product's development, but nonetheless perhaps we should be investigating that option precisely for that reason, because it just seems to me that you could tether one of these things nearly anywhere and while maybe not the operational no-fuss of an off-shore rig, well, we don't got those either ...

The Magenn Power Air Rotor System (MARS) is an innovative lighter-than-air tethered device that rotates about a horizontal axis in response to wind, efficiently generating clean renewable electrical energy at a lower cost than all competing systems. This electrical energy is transferred down the tether to a transformer at a ground station and then transferred to the electricity power grid. Helium (an inert non-reactive lighter than air gas) sustains the Air Rotor which ascends to an altitude for best winds and its rotation also causes the Magnus effect. This provides additional lift, keeps the device stabilized, keeps it positioned within a very controlled and restricted location, and causes it to pull up overhead rather than drift downwind on its tether.
[ Magenn Power Inc. ]

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Off-Shore Windfarm Video

Submitted by garym on May 12, 2008 - 10:45am.

Posted a few days ago by the BBC: take a tour of an offshore wind farm

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

I say ix-nay on the C, and here's why

Submitted by garym on May 14, 2008 - 11:49am.

Yet another reason why we should say an ix-ney on the Albatros-necklace of Bruce C and plan instead for the real future of power generation:

The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) today released a first-of-its kind report that examines the technical feasibility of harnessing wind power to provide up to 20 percent of the nation's total electricity needs by 2030. Entitled "20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030", the report identifies requirements to achieve this goal including reducing the cost of wind technologies, citing new transmission infrastructure, and enhancing domestic manufacturing capability.
[ Wind Energy Could Produce 20 Percent of U.S. Electricity By 2030 | Science Blog ]

To recap, we're sitting here right smack in the middle of off-the-scale off-shore wind regions and the US is going gangbusters for eco-power to the tune of 20% within 12 years on wind alone and what was that schedule to flip on the hot-rod Bruce C? Half that time? You can barely amortize a family van in eight years.

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever