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World's First Floating Windfarm To Take Shape Off Coast of Scotland (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The world's first floating windfarm has taken to the seas in a sign that a technology once confined to research and development drawing boards is finally ready to unlock expanses of ocean for generating renewable power. After two turbines were floated this week, five now bob gently in the deep waters of a fjord on the western coast of Norway ready to be tugged across the North Sea to their final destination off north-east Scotland. The ~$256 million Hywind project is unusual not just because of the pioneering technology involved, which uses a 78-meter-tall underwater ballast and three mooring lines that will be attached to the seabed to keep the turbines upright. It is also notable because the developer is not a renewable energy firm but Norway's Statoil, which is looking to diversify away from carbon-based fuels.
Well, whoopdee doo Basil. But what does it all mean?
Shucks, I was hoping the farm to be floating in the air, like in Big Hero 6.
Installed cost of over $8500 per kW. A gas fired combined cycle plant runs from $500 to $1000 per kW.
This project will only make money because stupid people will pay extra for the joy of it.
Absolutely stupid.
Is that $8500 per peak watt or after taking into account the "capacity factor" that the wind blows, on average, a certain percent of the time?
Did not fit the word "cyber" into the summary.
Better not get creimer to do the IT. The amount of wind from his boasting will blow it off course!
Stay out of the Bight
As usual, TFA is short on some important details. Wind turbines, great. Floating, anchored in (relatively) deep coastal waters, great. How does the power get back to shore? The northern coast of Scotland isn't really a very highly populated area, how does this project tie into the existing power grid?
T. Boone Pickens had an idea a few yeard ago - build wind farms across the panhandle of Texas, then run the power back along railroad right-of-ways. Trains might run through the middle of nowhere, but their destinations are always in towns.
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
Imagine the German navy's delight if this were 1939...
In 1939 the Royal Navy couldn't retaliate with Trident ballistic missiles, and nuclear Tomahawks. Seriously, which navy do you think is going to attack these turbines? Any nation state would suffer overwhelming retaliation. Any terrorist organization already has many far softer targets.
I imagine some day, electric boats might swap batteries at floating stations that recharge the depleted batteries via wind turbine or tidal power.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
In the north sea alone there are dozens of old clapped out oil rigs that are at end of life,one of the first biggies was lifted off its base just a few weeks ago,the plan for many seems to be that the bases and anchor systems etc are going to left as navigation hazard for decades,why not make some use of them and stick wind gennies on them,the only extra cost is power cables,oil firms can charge rent,and 10% of profits anyone makes can go towards removal of bases eventually,they are massive structures, not going to wear out or collapse in the near future,most of them are in good condition still,either removal or just blowing them over is pricey but do-able.
Why not get some more use out of them until in such bad condition that something has to be done ?
The development is entirely reasonable, and follows the normal pattern of risk reduction in an emerging technology.
Oil drilling started off on land, then it moved to shallow waters, then it moved to deep waters. The technology developed on the easiest sites then moved to the harder sites when there were not enough easy sites.
Some of the first wind farms in the UK were on Scottish islands. Not only did they have plenty of wind, the inhabitants of the islands used diesel generators, which were over four times the cost of mainland electricity; so the site was likely to be profitable even if it used first-generation parts. It reduced the risk of a highly visible venture site being unprofitable, and blocking the chance of making others.
Putting windmills in shallow water is quite like building them on land. You sink piles into shallow water or boggy land. The existing technologies can be used with longer piles, but in the end another solution is going to be cheaper. The cheaper solution is going to be anchored platforms. The people with the most experience of these are oil companies.
Instead of asking, "why an oil company?", ask "why not all oil companies with offshore drilling?". The US division - fossil fuels are freedom, wind and renewables are tree-hugging socialism - does not hold in Europe.
You are a dumbass if you think that nuclear weapons would be used as a retaliation strike for sinking a wind turbine platform. Not only weapons of mass destruction are ultima ratio, but given the proximity to the British isles they will receive a substantial amount of their own fallout and it will also poison their fish stocks.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Haven't really read it much yet (it's 0400 in the morning and I'm getting ready for work) but as long as the numbers work out let'em go for it. Since "low carbon" is a thing with some they should also factor in the cost of carbon for the steel or aluminum, the oil lubing the bearings, etc. but it could very well be a positive. Certainly that area is DANGED windy!
Ferret
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
In the same way the USA is of the coast of the UK.
Does it spoil the view from The Donster's golf course? Wouldn't that be a pity!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Farming the wind. Really? Who buys wind? Is this a Monsanto thing or some other BigAg making a new market?
I got wind right here. It's some butthole speaking crap behind my back.
RRK
The map has a couple of problems.
The Hywind project is nowhere near "North east Scotland". It looks to be near Aberdeen. That's east certainly but it is pretty close to the middle north-south of the mainland. The other Dot, next to that claims to be a place called Kingcardine. That is a hundred miles away. This may not seem much to people in the USA but it does here.
If the map is faulty, how reliable is the article?
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Imagine the German navy's delight if this were 1939...
In 1939 the Royal Navy couldn't retaliate with Trident ballistic missiles, and nuclear Tomahawks..
And nobody really knows if it could do it today. Trident missiles are designed, manufactured and serviced in USA. Would they even launch without additional authorization code in case UK and US interests diverged?
When I first came here, this was all ocean. Everyone said I was daft to build a wind farm on a ocean, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the ocean. So I built a second one. That sank into the ocean. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the ocean. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest wind farm in all of Scotland.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Are you saying you think he was suggesting that if someone destroyed the platform, Britain would retaliate by nuking the remains of the platform, and not the people who destroyed it?
If we start occupying large open spaces including the ocean with these windmills, I wonder what the environmental impact would be with massive blocking/displacement of the wind around the world.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
Couldn't help but wonder: if one of them puppies "accidentally" broke free of its moorings and started drifting away .. and I just happened to be there with a tugboat (or a bloody rowboat, for that matter!) and got a line on it ...
Would it be mine?
Pfffthpptt!
Call me when they have hovering, free-flying, untethered windmills!