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A New Twist on Floating Wind Power

Posted February 04, 2011 8:35 AM

From Technology Review RSS Feeds:

Wind turbines attached to floating buoys can harness stronger, more sustained winds in the open ocean. But the floats now used for such deep-water installations may prove prohibitively expensive because the buoys needed to keep them above water are enormous. Now a project in France is turning the turbine design on its head for what developers hope will be a low-cost alternative.

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Guru

Join Date: May 2010
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#1

Re: A New Twist on Floating Wind Power

02/06/2011 9:35 PM

I think there is an error in logic, or math, or in the understanding of flotation dynamics.

Given the same working height of the center of drag of the turbine, and equal power output - the overturning moment is the same.

Therefore the 'difference' is a greater mass - still above water - verses a lighter mass at the middle of the center of effort.

Or perhaps they haven't worked out to make a lighter HAWT head yet?

Or how to design a stable buoy - which they need in either case, to resist the thrust of generation.

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