A Look at Floating Wind Farms: Harnessing Offshore Energy
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Complete Premium video at: fora.tv Habib Dagher, Structural Engineering Professor at the University of Maine, describes the concept of offshore wind turbines that float in deep water. Currently, the only fully operational floating wind turbine in the world is located in Norway and serves as a model for a planned offshore wind farm in Maine. Ironically, engineers borrowed the design from floating oil and gas rigs. —– Habib Dagher, the Bath Iron Works Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Maine, is the founding director of the AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center. Established by the National Science Foundation in 1996, the interdisciplinary AEWC Center is a world leader in the development of cost-effective, high performance hybrid composite materials for construction applications. The center recently received $15 million in funding from the Department of Energy for the development of offshore wind energy off Maine’s coast. – Chautauqua Institution Dr. Habib Dagher is Professor of Civil/Structural Engineering at the University of Maine, Bath Iron Works Professor of Structural Engineering, and founding Director of the AEWC Advanced Structures & Composites Center.
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25 Comments
November 15th, 2010 at 8:09 am
@hitheresunshine Ya, totally agree, just as long as people realize that they can’t just go around and put an electricity generator wherever they want to. I be no one would argue that we need to turn yellowstone national park into a geothermal production plant. The same can be said for our coastline. I dont care about the turbines as long as they are placed somewhere where no one cares (ex: the middle of the ocean)
November 15th, 2010 at 9:08 am
@Rod934 I didn’t think about the corrosion problem, but I managed to think of two designs where the mechanisms wouldn’t be susceptible to corrosion (i.e. the mechanisms themselves would be above the surface). Whether they’d actually work, well, probably not actually. It’ll need a greater mind than mine, but I’m sure there are plenty of those out there already.
November 15th, 2010 at 9:54 am
@GulfOilDisaster2010 that is solvable.
November 15th, 2010 at 10:40 am
@MrSpitfireUK the main problem with also trying to get tidal energy with it would be salt water corrosion. Another thing to consider is it’s length and weight which will most likely reduce the overall bobbing and wobbling. I’m sure there are ways in which it could be done, however I think it would be something they would add at a later date to reduce cost.
November 15th, 2010 at 10:44 am
@MrSpitfireUK Good thinking.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:44 am
@pleasesaymatt >Turban has room for personal turbine to charge a cell phone, what a gr8 idea.
Energy flux density of anything but nuclear energy sucks. This idiot can not imagine, in case of storm, it will kill sharks or whales. New nuclear plants are safe and are the best investment for tax payers.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
The Department of Defense made a statement around a month ago that large wind turbines obstruct the ability of our defense radars… creating a dead zone.
watch?v=ktEdHxQgSEU
November 15th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
@Terje1337 *Previously* state owned, have no idea why I wrote formally.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Statoil is a partially state owned company, formally completely state owned. What that means, is that it aint never gonna happen. It is a showcase for Norway. They talked about this for several years. They have made several plans for offshore (and onshore) wind farms. None offshore and few onshore have been assembeled. Norway got the technology and the money, but they got some socialist morons running a over taxed country in the government.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I think they should be designing these to become artificial reefs which they seem likely to become whether they take that into account or not. Furthermore, it seems lame to try exporting the power when we have plenty of uses for it that could take place on the same floating platform, like server farms, data storage, satellite relay, air traffic control, etc. It seems like a great idea: invisible mutualistic infrastructure. What’s not to like?
November 15th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
@dumbnetworks Its grants not tax dollars. Its OK.
November 15th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Mole!
November 15th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
OMG I HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS!!! They are robbing us god damnit
November 15th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Surely it’s not beyond us to create a structure that can take advantage of both wind and tidal/kinteic power at the same time. I would suspect that these floating towers are going to do a lot of wobbling and/or bobbing, and we could harness that energy at the same time.
November 15th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
wow
November 15th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
@Raxarax
Wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, tidal energy… All such wonderful prospects!
I think the best solution is a combination of all the clean energy sources that we can utilize.
November 15th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Offshore wind energy~! Tidal energy~!
Sigh… clean energy. <3
November 15th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Superb, unlimited free energy.
At last something decent from Fora than the usual facist Iran and Muslim Holocaust incitement they normally spew as Oil runs out in 2050.
November 15th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
There are a few on a hillside near where I live, I can’t see them from my house, but I like to see them when I drive past, and support the idea of sustainable, renewable energy, but I have seen an area where there are about 40 in a couple of square miles and they really do spoil the landscape. So offshore windfarms seem to be a sensible answer.
November 15th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
@pleasesaymatt
Then what kind of turbine does the Taliban wear????
November 15th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
@imre1000 i merely said that wind power was a lot more efficient than solar. sometimes it makes sense to use solar power in certain situations
November 15th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
@AussiePolitics, the in this video made a few hundred million out of Solar power, with no gov help:
/watch?v=jCjM2leF5F8
It is possible, but it would work a lot better without Government intervening and trying to ‘help’.
November 15th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
@Raxarax did i say that? no i did not. i said that solar power did not even come close to producing enough energy as wind power. solar is virtually a waste of time unless the technology improves dramatically, which it should have by now considering how much more has been spent on it.
November 15th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
It’s turbine. A turban is what Sikhs wear.
November 15th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
awesome – more of these things