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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.
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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.
With all the barnacles and sea weed/algae growth? Wouldn't they make the platform too heavy after a while?
Well, all the gold ever mined on the world fits into two olympic swimming pools.
Even if you don't know how big such a pool really is, you get the idea that the amount of gold is extremely low. And from that it is easy to conclude that gold based/backed currencies are completely impossible in our days. The gold in your SmartPhone would be worth thousands of dollars if mega trillions of commerce on the planet would be done with gold based currencies.
I'm to lazy to look up how big a football field is and convert feet or yards into graspable dimensions ... but I know it is a bit bigger than a soccer field (which actually has no fixed size, but a range of allowed length and width).
So, I have a good idea how big the floats are.
Anyway, I appreciate that you only were ironic. Just wanted to give a thought to the other readers.
I mean if I write about a man high Buddha statue that I discovered in the south american jungles it is quite likely that it is not 2.30m nor 1.45m but somewhere in the middle :D transforming that into feet and inches is left as an exercise for the reader.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
As an American I can tell you the proper word is "pique" not "peak".
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.
Because only Americans can win at the Olympics.
An American football field is pretty close to the size of a typical soccer (as we Americans call "football") field. Roughly 109mx48m. Typically we don't use the full 109m length when soccer is played on the same field because running into the permanently mounted football goal posts by accident hurts.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
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.
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.
'Football fields' is pretty universal. Even if we're talking about different sports.
What is the area of Aussie rules? I bet it's 'close enough'. Likely a little bigger, but that's fair, some of it will be infested with venomous creatures.
A better sign that this is directed at American minds is that it's a terrible idea. But then again, 'people are stupid' is also universal.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
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!
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.
My thought was that it's a sign that solar panels have gotten a lot cheaper. If they're cheap enough it might be a good idea...though not for every purpose. (I mean the floating solar generator plant, not the desalinization idea. I haven't thought that one through. It seems like a floating desalinization plant shouldn't use that much power, since it would probably be based on solar evaporation.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
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.
"it usually means we're attempting to peek into the interested American mind(s)..."
I was thrown off because I just couldn't decide if I could place an asterisk after the plurality option without explaining the joke, which as we know, ruins the darn thing.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Most of water on the Earth is salt water, salt + electronics = bad, salt + solar panels = bad (it will QUICKLY coat the panels and reduce their usefulness)
I don't see how this could possibly work on any ocean as it would need major maintenance on top of the solar panel costs.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Poisonous debris like silicon? You know, the stuff sand is made of?
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?