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Floating wind turbines for offshore use are seen by many as embodying the future of the sector: they circumvent the problem of unsuitable seabeds and may even cost less than grounded alternatives. A consortium working under the FLOATGEN banner is looking for a share of the pie with the first-ever floating wind turbine to be set-up in the Atlantic close to the French coast.
FLOATGEN is looking to pioneer the expected burgeoning of offshore floating wind farms in European waters. To do so, it will set up a 2 MW turbine in the Atlantic Ocean, at the SEM-REV test site located 12 nautical miles from the city of Le Croisic. The seven-strong consortium hopes that this groundbreaking set-up—on a site which features an electrical substation connected to the national grid—will demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of floating-wind turbines and enable their development in windy and deep waters that are currently not commercially viable.
The demonstrator is using a cost-efficient, ring-shaped floating platform patented by Ideol. It boasts novel hydrodynamic properties that, according to its manufacturer, 'make its performance exceptional compared to other floating platforms.'
How long before Brexit Britain seizes the turbines and anchors them off Jersey?
[Editor's Note: Le Croisic is a commune and not a city. The nearest city is Nantes.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 29 2016, @10:51PM
> BTW did you know that wind power is disguised solar energy? The Sun causes those temperature differentials that cause pressure differentials that give rise to wind.
Not to nitpick, but everything is disguised solar energy, with the exception of nuclear isotopes, but those were formed from a supernova, which was once a sun somewhere. Even coal and oil is just trapped solar energy.
Thanks for the interesting breakdown. I suspect that with time people will find that turbines also alter the environment and threaten some wildlife. Fact is, you cannot extract energy from a system without affecting the environment. We humans (as many seem to forget) are as natural as everything around us, and by extension, all the alternations to the environment we do is just as natural as everything else.
It is a matter of what causes the least disruption for the maximum energy capture, and what is the easiest to contain in a limited area of disruption.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 29 2016, @11:57PM
Hydrogen is primordial.