Innovative ways to float skyscraper-sized wind turbines | Hacker News Reader

Innovative ways to float skyscraper-sized wind turbines

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30 pointsyread12 comments

Looking at the designs presented for floating oceanic wind turbine bases shows, that there is a need to have as much stability as possible, while moving in response to wave action and tides.

By default, all power generating equipment is 100% duty cycle , 24/7/365. For fixed land based machines the various loads and environmental wear conditions are more or less predictable. Marine instalations on the other hand, are notorious for destroying anything and everything, very especialy anything with moving parts, due to all of the land based factors, plus operating on an unpredictable moving platform. Total failure of the entire structure can be initiated by the failure of any one of many bearings/joints where movement between components takes place,deep underwater. Inspection becomes a challenge and service at sea impossible. The many failures of underwater tidal generators bears testimony to the dificulties and challenges.

The full study pdf is fascinating (Trends in floating offshore wind platforms: A review 2024)

What your take on offshore floating PV. Setting aside the issue of power transmission (which can be 30% of the capex!) these are passive more forgiving structures? Can they last 10-20 years?

Perhaps integrated into fish farms, where they need power, almost always prefer cooler water, and have been site selected for calmer waters, have industrial permiting, in place, wharfs, trucks,tugs,etc.Aquavoltaics. In warmer areas, surface encrustation will happen instanty, salt water on hot pannels will get top coated with avian deposits. Perhaps semi-submergerd pannels laying flat in calm equatorial seas could work well, but the markets and best locations will not line up, which brings us back to transmission lines. Like all solar PV installations, there are many variables to consider and factor in correctly when going for grid scale.And adding moving mechanical components to what is otherwise an inert, solid state device is a whole other animal than a fixed ground/building mounted system.

We've had offshore wind for more than 20 years, how are those doing?

fixed base instalations in water, can fare better than land based, becuase the wind is steadier and turbulence tends to be much less, leading to lower stress/wear

I wonder why you wouldn't deploy a spar horizontally, filled with dry ballast powder evenly along it's length, then tip it vertical once in position and pump in water to set the ballast. This seems an obvious approach, allowing use of a shallow dock ,so there must be some issue with it

Flip ship does this. I don't think dry ballast powder is needed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP_FLIP

Yeah, that gave me the idea. The use case is slightly different: flip wants needs to be re-oriented repeatedly, whereas the spar would benefit if its ballast would remain in place without maintenance.

Aikido wind turbine

https://www.fastcompany.com/90955725/this-floating-wind-turb...

my gut instinct suggests that the ballast powder would shift about while being towed and cause unexpected motion, especially if it's hinged at one end. You might end up with it self-deploying with a runaway effect if enough of the weight moved to the loose end

Yeah, that's plausible. Maybe it could just be empty, and have concrete pumped into it on deployment.

Fun to speculate about, but no doubt there's a problem with that too!

If this works, then why is tidal power not more widely used?

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