| Floating Off-Shore Wind Rig Based on Oil Rig Technology |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Monday, 02 July 2007 | ||
 What are the three biggest problems with wind power? Anybody, anybody, Bueller? 1. Bird Kill, 2. NIMBYism and 3 Dead bugs gumming up the works. Now, I'm not saying that these are always legitimate concerns, but migration corridors should be avoided and some people just really don't like the way wind turbines look. These are real problems, so we've got to find real solutions. How about we put wind turbines in a place that is literally no one's back yard, there are no bugs, and where birds only go to die. Namely, 50-100 miles off-shore. The big problem, of course, is that there's no way to anchor wind turbines into the sea-floor if the sea-floor is 300 meters down (as it is when you get that far off shore.) Why is why Norsk Hydro has been working on a prototype floating off-shore wind rig called the Hywind. Norsk Hydro's off-shore wind expertise comes directly from their experience with off-shore oil rigs. And now that off-shore oil is less interesting to Norway, Norsk Hydro happily developing this awesome new technology. A pilot project with three 3 MW turbines will be installed before the beginning of 2008. But future plans call for larger farms with hundreds of 5 MW turbines producing as much as 4 terrawatt hours per year, or roughly enough to power 200,000 households. More pics after the jump. Via Inhabitat and Norsk Hydro See Also: -World's Largest Offshore Wind Project- -NIMBY to YIMBY- -The AeroGenerator- 
Comments
(3)
Myth
written by orig_club_soda , July 03, 2007
Read the second sentence
written by CF , July 03, 2007
"Now, I'm not saying that these are always legitimate concerns..."
nice analysis
written by Nick , July 21, 2008
"where birds only go to die"
for someone who is obsessed with saving the planet you sure don't know much about it. I'm a huge proponent of offshore wind energy, but the issue of pelagic bird and turbines as certainly NOT resolved or "debunked." There has only been one study released so far, and it focused on overwintering ducks...birds that fly much differently than the majority of pelagic birds like storm-petrels, shearwaters and alcids. More studies need to be done to determine proper sites, and to assess the impact on pelagic birds and mammals. | ||
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This not true. It was debunked. Cats, not windmills, bigger threat to birds.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/04/MNG9SPKPT31.DTL