Floating wind turbine and wave power

As solar and wind power become more mainstream, companies and environmentalists alike are searching for new and improved ways to push the green envelope even further. 

 

And while wind turbines are now a pretty common sight, any opposition to them floats around the disruption they cause to migratory birds and well, the fact that thousands of towering two-hundred foot wind turbines just look kind of ugly. 

One way to increase curb appeal is being pushed out to sea by Norway’s StatoilHydro. Appropriately named the HyWind, it is the world’s first full-scale floating offshore windmill. 

The HyWind is a 2.3 MW turbine with a floating segment that continues 100m below the ocean’s surface. Anchored to the seabed with 60-tonne concrete weights and cables that can be up to 700m long, power is transmitted back to the shore via undersea cables. 

One problem that needs to be overcome: the cost. Wind speeds may be higher offshore, generating more energy, but the turbines are also more expensive to build offshore. 

Floating turbines are also causing waves of excitement since they open up the possibility of simultaneously harnessing wind and wave power. 

Green Ocean Energy Ltd’s Wave Treader generates power as the side arms float up and down. The electricity produced is sent back to shore through the same cable as the wind turbine, proving that darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, under the sea. 

Floating wind turbines and wave power devices may be soon become…er…the wave of the future.