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Flexible Floating Football-Field Sized Solar Panels (digitaltrends.com)
mdsolar writes: Offshore wind farms are growing in popularity as energy providers look for different ways of harvesting power from the sun without using valuable land resources. One unique idea being developed by engineers at Vienna University of Technology is a floating platform called a Heliofloat that would function as a sea-based solar power station.... an open-bottom, flexible float as large as a football field and covered from edge to edge with solar panels. Heliofloats can operate as standalone platforms for smaller operations with moderate energy requirements. Multiple heliofloats also can be connected together, forming a floating solar-harvesting power grid.
Each heliofloat is 100 meters long, reportedly cheap and easy to build, and may eventually be used to power desalination plants and biomass extraction.
Each heliofloat is 100 meters long, reportedly cheap and easy to build, and may eventually be used to power desalination plants and biomass extraction.
Offshore wind farms are growing in popularity as energy providers look for different ways of harvesting power from the sun without using valuable land resources.
Which is why coastal states are now experimenting with offshore nuclear reactors, to harness the geothermal energy derived from burning coal.
Nothing posted to
Something constructive and useful instead of an anti-nuclear rant. I never thought I'd see the day.
Desalination is an ideal use for fluctuating power sources, so long as you can find enough sheltered bays and estuaries to float them. Hawaii has a particular problem finding a carbon-free power source that will work on scattered islands, and has quite a few locations where these panels could be located.
But the real potential for this idea would be the atolls of the south Pacific. These places rely on diesel generators now, and generally have a small number of users who have no need for an industrial baseload.
This is excellent. I think they should combine a plant like this with wind turbines and wave plants as well. They won't hinder one another, and they could reuse a lot of infrastructure and space.
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
On the single picture the panels are mounted flat.
That probably makes sense because of strong winds that would be dangerous for traditional tilted panels.
On the other hand: if the panels where tilted to wards the sun, you could turn the whole platform to follow the sun very easy, two simple sails would be enough.
Benefit would be: you get a decent increase of solar input not only by pointing towards the sun, but also by reflections from the sea.
Everyone who ever got a sunburn close to the water knows the difference.
Of course bottom line you look more at costs then at "efficiency" ... no one wants a system that has multiple options for failure when a simple flat "raft" already gives a good enough yield.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Its an interesting design, but I don't know how effective it would be. The sea is a pretty torturous place, and that thing looks pretty close to it. Add to that all of the talk about "flexible" pieces and parts, something you don't generally see in maritime engineering and it sounds a little iffy. A more proven design might be a submerged pontoon design (like an oil platform). Because of the much lower weight it wouldn't need to built nearly as heavily and on long enough pylons the solar panels would be kept far above the waves..
Unfortunately, this unconventional measurement only works for the rest of the world's football pitch.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I'm amazed. True to his name, Mdsolar posted an article that's actually pro-solar instead of anti-nuclear.
Wouldn't this darken the environment bellow its self pretty substantially? A few of them wouldn't be a problem but wide spread use would be problematic.
With all the barnacles and sea weed/algae growth? Wouldn't they make the platform too heavy after a while?
A good place to put such floating panels are the hydropower reservoirs.
Large surface is available, of little use, power lines and converters are nearby, and the wind is less strong at the bottom of these lake than on sea.
It's a good thing wind and weather are never a challenge at sea!
-Styopa
Floating solar is already common. Here is a large example. http://spectrum.ieee.org/energ... Putting solar on reservoirs also helps to reduce evaporation and conserve water. The novelty here is the resilience to rough water using the modular open base float system. It is notable also that sea based solar could replace fossil oil for liquid fuel production since the Navy has already patented a way to turn seawater into fuel.
Now, an attack on the electrical grid will only require a small rowboat!!!
Because only Americans can win at the Olympics.
You are right that sheltered waters have been sought. This rig sounds as though it is more seaworthy though. In the doldrums, a Swiss company was developing a solar island that had a single open floatation chamber. This effort seems to anticipate temperate waters with more storms.
This would take a lot of solar energy out of the natural ocean energy cycles, has anybody thought about the negative consequences of this kind of energy harvesting?
A chain off these recharging flow battery electrolyte could power a container based fast automated ocean freight system. Might allow Amazon to source more from direct overseas suppliers.
I can see the use case for offshore platforms using such a thing for energy, but other than that, what is the point?
I mean, how is this better than putting a crap ton of cells in the desert where there is almost never clouds? Not to mention land based installations are really pretty simple.
I am sure I am missing something, but I do not see why this is a worthwhile endeavor when there are other plans floating around like covering the Sahara with solar.
One question about this: How does everything living in the ocean feel about this? I don't need to be a marine biologist to understand that completely blocking the sun over huge areas of the ocean probably isn't good for it or the lifeforms living in it.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
How about using some of that solar energy to extract plastic particulates and other man-made substances from the sea before every ocean on this planet turns into a toxic stew? Without healthy oceans life on this planet is going to get ugly in a big hurry.
Hey, all you people who think it's such a great idea to build stuff to use all that open space on the ocean: Talk to a few boat owners first. You'll quickly come to understand that between wave action, salt water spray getting into every crack and crevice, corrosion, and biological fouling (both below from crustaceans and seaweed, and above from bird and seal droppings), you're constantly fighting to keep the damn thing from falling apart within a few years.
Just save yourself a lot of heartache and build the thing on land, or even on top of freshwater reservoirs. Anywhere but the ocean. You don't put structures there unless you have to.
You can tell that Vienna University of Technology doesn't have a naval architecture department. The picture with the caption "The platforms remain steady - even when the sea is rough" shows ripples that a blue-water sailor considers "dead calm". Also, the statement "When the air tanks are correctly dimensioned, the waves rise and fall under the Heliofloat without making any significant impact on the platform" can only be true for a limited range of wave frequencies. The deck will need significant stiffness, or lots of flex joints, to deal with all other conditions.
What about utilising some of these platforms as floating data centres and then use the sea water for cooling (I have read about the idea of using sea water for cooling data centres some years ago) and suddenly you end up with quite a few synergies. A proportion of the power generated from the solar platforms will go into the grid during the day and energy from the grid will power the data centre at night.