| A Floating Solar Island for the UAE |
| Written by Hank Green | |
| Wednesday, 19 September 2007 | |
 Here in America we've got several vast deserts that are perfect for installing gigantic solar thermal power plants. But not every country has so much free space. At the end of the day, most of the sun's light hits the oceans, because most of the Earth is ocean, but the United Arab Emirates has just contracted with a Swiss firm, CSEM, to purchase a floating solar island. The island, which will basically float on a ring-shaped raft, was conceptualized a while ago by CSEM, but until now they haven't found any buyers. The prototype being comissioned by the UAE will first be tested in a nearby desert before the concept is moved onto the ocean. It's one-tenth the size of the concept pictured above, only costing $5M and about 100 meters wide with a peak power generation of roughly 1 megawatt. The plant will produce energy by concentrating solar power onto pipes containing water. The water will boil, and be used to spin turbines. Once shipped off-shore, the islands could be used to convert seawater to hydrogen, allowing them to be autonomous and untethered to the shore. They hydrogen could be picked up by barges, instead of having to transport the electricity to shore via a physical connection. This pilot project is being designed mostly to test the feasibility of the solar islands; CSEM says that the islands so far look like they will be cost-effective as long as they are deployed in areas with more than 350 days of sunlight that are near the equator. That's a lot of sunlight, but the area of the coast of the UAE fits the bill. Of course, it's also necessary for the structures to be able to survive a serious storm either by motoring to shore to avoid it, or being resilient enough to live through it. In any case, I'm pretty excited about the prospects of harnessing the seemingly limitless bounty of the sun hitting the ocean's surface. Via CSEM Press Release, and Good Clean Tech Comments
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Ice
written by Joel , September 19, 2007
Better yet, use a thermally-driven, absorption-type refrigerator to make ice. The heat could be rejected into cool water beneath the surface.
if we erect a structure 1000m wide
written by weee , September 19, 2007
on land; we can see the effect on the land underneath it but on water it will be far more difficult to measure the effect.
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written by net97surferx , September 19, 2007
Gigantic structures are required to 'let' energy producers sell / make a profit. If the mindset would change to 'individual' and 'small neighborhood generation -- there is technology already 'on the shelf' which can be put in place immediately. Perhaps... just to keep the moguls happy, they can charge for installation and then monthly leasing of equipment --- most works with no failures so they rake in plenty of cash against the few repair calls they would have to make.
20-30 years ago, isolated villages in Africa were being given solar 'dishes' which would focus on a black sphere containing 'pipes with gas' (much like refrigerator coolant) that would be flashed into 'steam' and run a small turbine generator which powered their whole village. Toss in some battery storage for overnight use and ... someone could do a lot with that $5Million installing units like this in 'sunny' countries.
Where does the salt go?
written by Ganesh , September 20, 2007
So, what happens with all the salty sludge that gets spit out after turning the water to hydrogen and oxygen? Won't it just sink and pool on the ocean floor? That doesn't sound healthy. Why do we need to turn clean solar energy into something so complicated and messy? :'(
What is the advantage of floating over a
written by David , September 20, 2007
Is land in UAE all expensive? Surely it would be cheaper to locate on a desert if there was one in the are?
The salt is no problem
written by Barclay , September 20, 2007
When the water is electrolyzed, the salt will just dissolve back into the sea, and the local sea around the array will be 0.000000001% saltier. The motion of the water will distribute that around. There are much bigger concerns, engineering wise, with this than the salt.
Where does the SALT go!!
written by VaPooRise , September 20, 2007
You know, I have to agree with this guy, I don't want to panic anyone, but imagine a force on this scale, purifying water vapor out of the ocean!
Now imagine some psycho using solar power to extract fresh water vapor FROM ALL OF THE WORLDS OCEANS! Then imagine, some flying vehicle in the sky, that can transport this water vapor OVER LAND, near our vulnerable cities and mountains, and SUDDENLY transform all that water vapor into SOLID LIQUID WATER. It will be like a billion bullets of water hitting us, making out streets wet, shutting down tourism and recreational activities. We will be slaves to this eco-terrorism! I propose a new bill called GREENPEACE that will abolish all forms of water vapor transfer, and use tax dollars to create rain seeding technology that will keep this new terrorist force out of our nation, and the water bullets over the sea where they belong. We can then keep buying water in plastic bottles from the French. Oh wait. Clouds. PWNED!!!!! Lol. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cool
written by www.iwannamakemoneyonline.com , September 20, 2007
Cool! They should make 1000s of these and set them loose in the oceans. That'd call for good times!!! And plus, it would make things really exciting and challenging for cruise ships, boats, etc.
Mike from http://www.iwannamakemoneyonline.com
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written by Anon , September 20, 2007
It doesn't look very stormworthy. Its... big. And flat. And inflexible. It would snap like a cracker.
storms not the problem and could be a be
written by p2 , September 22, 2007
why do you think so 20th century, deewd? first off you could break the thing into linkable units that could drive themselves around after dispersing, you might see a discovery channel show about cranes and movable pads that are used to move giant structures intact like buildings etc. they have six sides and link together and have 360 steering with gps control to the hundreth.
you could even reconfigure it so that it used the storms to generate by harnessing the increased wave action and wind. the classic deathmatch is between oil and free stuff. the wind drove us around the world for free for years called "sailing" and now we are trying to start a new 'free' power, but if you pay more to create a kilowatt with anything more expensive than sucking oil out of the ground then youre going to go bust. funny you mention the evian (naive, spelled backwards..)bottles because the only thing that is intangible is created demand through changes of taste i,e. the rich like the uae can afford to play with million dollar projects and are prey to trends that involve risking large sums of money. if enough prius drivers from the suburbs get their money out change the taste then maybe its all going to rock. while we pay extra for sunpower, the developing world will be burning as much oil as they possibly can at a third of our cost or less.
Evironmental Impact?
written by Sean & Michelle Crosetti , September 25, 2007
Umm.... What happens to all the aquatic life needing the solar energy under the floating island? It is not like the plankton can swim out from under the structure. Not to sound like an extremist, but there are areas of the ocean which are "dead zones" already, I think there needs to be a tad bit more research on this....
MADE OF AWESOME
written by Lynn , September 27, 2007
Cool! I'm writing a current event and I think that I'll use this article. It's jokes!
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written by Mangalore Subash , October 07, 2007
IT is good to go in the direction of energy harvesting from sun and if it should be funded by money thats responsible for climate today,whats the harm.Technology can tame the problems associated with the concept.
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written by Mangalore Subash , October 07, 2007
Initial test of the system will be done in the desert indeed.
If it should be succesful ,it can be used even in space constrained countries for power/water genration.
Do it, just do it! C'mon... do it!
written by CL , February 18, 2008
Sounds good to me. Improve the efficiency, decrease the material costs while making the whole thing flexible and storm proof. Make them as big as storm waves will allow them to be. Tether 100's of em off of every sunny coastline and voila. Plenty of cheap energy, no land used and fresh water by-product. Oh, and bye bye Arabs...
Hmmmmmm
written by WW , May 16, 2008
"bye bye Arabs?" Do you know who the UAE is? United Arab Emirates? This system uses concentrated solar energy which uses either many mirrors to focus light to a small spot, or a trough kept perpendicular to the sun. This tracking would require a stable, fixed platform to operate. It will probably work great as a test in the desert, then fail miserably in the ocean. Have you seen what salt water does to metal? The UAE has deserts, its just all the people live along the coast.
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Perhaps a better idea would be using it to desalinate water. Fresh water will float in seawater without much support, and there's lots of demand for it in that area, to the point that significant energy is being used.
A steam-driven reverse osmosis machine could be built fairly simply, especially if it can operate a few meters or tens of meters below the ocean's surface: fill the chamber with steam to drive the water into a holding tank, then let the steam condense to draw water through the membranes.