Rock
11-19-2006, 02:47 PM
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060819023800data_trunc_sys.shtml
But an MIT researcher has a vision that may negate all these criticisms: huge offshore wind turbines that nobody onshore can see. The trick? The wind turbines are floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady.
Because of their size (the rotors would be 140 meters in diameter), the researchers anticipate that the turbines will be assembled onshore and towed out to sea. To keep each platform stable, cylinders inside it are ballasted with concrete and water. Once on site, the platform is hooked to previously installed tethers. Water is pumped out of the cylinders until the entire assembly lifts up in the water, pulling the tethers taut.
Sclavounos hopes to install a half-scale prototype south of Cape Cod. "We'd have a little unit sitting out there and...
Source: MIT News
But an MIT researcher has a vision that may negate all these criticisms: huge offshore wind turbines that nobody onshore can see. The trick? The wind turbines are floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady.
Because of their size (the rotors would be 140 meters in diameter), the researchers anticipate that the turbines will be assembled onshore and towed out to sea. To keep each platform stable, cylinders inside it are ballasted with concrete and water. Once on site, the platform is hooked to previously installed tethers. Water is pumped out of the cylinders until the entire assembly lifts up in the water, pulling the tethers taut.
Sclavounos hopes to install a half-scale prototype south of Cape Cod. "We'd have a little unit sitting out there and...
Source: MIT News