Floating wind turbines poised to harness ocean winds

While the rest of the world is investing in offshore wind farms.....the US is still obsessed with offshore oil drilling.

sigh.

What is it with Republicans and their Amish-like fear of using any energy technology created after 1950?

If you're ever attacked by a Republican, just show him/her a picture of a solar energy plant and they will immediately recoil in pain and terror.

Really cool stuff. The Republicans are pushing hard on everyone for offshore drilling. This is definitely a better alternative.

After looking at the Maine plan, it's obvious that this is something that could become reality, the only problem is where is the power generated stored for use on not so windy days?

Hopefully we can see this happen in the near future. Unfortunately, there's too much oil pull in Washington. It's not our fault they aren't keeping up with the times, but we must pay the price.

GO WIND POWER!

Offshore wind farms seem way too enviromentally friendly for America to look into... Offshore oil drilling is more our pace

What I want to know is... why hasn't anyone done this before?

Good stuff! I hope it's use becomes more widespread.

The only concern I would have with this design is that it would be a bit like an anchored yacht with the sails rigged. The tethers would also need to be sufficiently long to cope with the tidal rise and fall, which may result in low-tidal drift of the platform becoming a potential hazard for shipping and trawling.

There is an obvious cost saving with the floating design; however a fixed turbine once placed stays put, encourages the development of reefs and marine life around the base and is unlikely to end up washed on shore after a storm.

Let's just hope this answer will be the correct one

Excellent story. I had solar panels put up a year and a half ago and although I only have a South West facing roof they work really well.
Had a survey done last week for a wind turbine but sadly am not in a good position so they declined to install one.
:

this would be awesome, I'm saddened that america has fallen so far but it's uplifting to know that the rest of the world is moving in the right direction. That means that there are places for me to flee to

Why dont they stop wasting time and money and drill a fucking hole and get some oil. Fucking activist need to fuck off.

They should be sticking up for the wind and then down into the water to capture the currents of the water.

How efficient is wind energy?

Wind & Water have a traditional relationship which
goes back a long way.The Dutch are mariners who have
used wind energy both at home,and wherever they've
explored. In the movie Wolfen I saw an Historical land
mark in NYC commemmorating the 1st windmill ever to
be built by Caucasions in North America. It dates back to the 1600s.It was a circular,horizontal windmill with the same type of forsails you might see on a racing sloop.It's
obvious they used it to grind wheat to bake bread with.In the Netherlands they use wind power to pump water out of low lying areas to reclaim land for farming,grind grain
with if the situation won't support a waterwheel to do it.
Their goal is self sufficiency in domestic food production.
When you see a tractor tilling soil for potatoes in the
space between the landing strips of the Amsterdam
International Airport,you know they understand what's
fundamental in life.Like the Swedes,the Dutch are a
very socialy advanced culture who are very bright.My
dad was of Dutch decent.He told me to eat wheat germ
for breakfast instead of meat because that's what the
intelligent body builders do. Wind,hydro power are 2
forms of constantly renewable energy which puts them
in harmony in nature,and leaves their money in their
own pockets where it belongs.All you need do is to look
at the sorry state of affairs in this World to see where
investing in burning fossil fuels has landed the Earth.
For the last 100 years,the International Oil Consortium
has drained both the value and supply of all our money
They have promoted economic Slavery by dominating
the auto industry through the internal combustion engine
They have used their Trust Monopoly to manipulate the
economies of all the O.P.E.C nations,manipulate the
election of President poser by means of election fraud,voter fraud,infiltration and manipulation of the mass
media as was revealed Michael Moore's documentary:
Fahrenheit 9/11/2000. Created Global warming which
will flood the Earth with 400 feet of water within the next
50 years unless we find a way to stop what may be its
irreversable damage anyway.And created foreign wars
not only in Kuwait,but Afghanistan,Iraq,and even Viet
Nam too.Oil company exploration found oil in the Tonkin
Gulf looooong before the military invaded it as far as
the 1950s.You didn't realy think they went to war over
idealogy did you? Their rascists.They treated Ho Chi Minh like something they stepped in when he came to ask them to help them before Dien Bien Phu fell in the
early 1950s.It's only because Big Oil exploration found
oil in the Tonkin Gulf that they went to invade Viet Nam.
The proof? Last Summer in 2007,President poser
formaly signed an agreement with the Vietnamese for
their oil. In fact you can trace foreign wars for oil all the
way back to the 1930s when Hitler invaded North Afric
under Hitler,and Italy invaded Ethiopia under Mussolini.
Wars cost collossal amounts of public money.There's
no way you can replace the money wasted in replacing
all that ordinance with cardboard and candy kisses.It
takes MONEY to finance a war for profit like any other
business venture.So is it interesting that the Brittish,
who are like the Dutch very bright people,are investing
in Wind Power on the Water? You bet it is. Current's
own published statistics show that about half of the
homeless in America are VietNam vets. To the Big
Oil Slavers of the world we're all their property. As one
man put it: "Your Time is our Money,America as he
grinned widely in greed. General Electric commercials
are the 1 in 20 commercials I ever record.Last year
they had 2 variations of the same commercial aired
which was awesomly beautiful. They played Donovan's
1960s song;"Catch the Wind" as the theme behind
their benevolent business ventures. it was wonderful.

This shows us yet another missed oppertunity to jumpstart america's devistated manufacturing industry. No need to worry about foreign islamic terrorists. We have already been invaded by multi-national corporations. They are distroying America from within. By confusing most of us and making neighbor hate neighbor, then rape and pillage our Earth and sky because most of us are not paying attention.

This design should have two turbines on it.
One on top for wind and one underneath for water current.
Just a thought

Sweet stuff, although I think its gonna be a combination of all earthly powers that ween all of us off of our oil dependence.

Again, I am thrilled to hear about companies moving in the direction of non-polluting solutions...

Woo hoo -- go, Brits!!!!! Now I'm going to investigate the use of these in my state. ACT LOCALLY!!!

Question... do water and electricity mix?
Other than the possibility of electricuiting everything in the water in the case of an accident I am very excited about this. I would like to know what they are doing or plan on doing to prevent the electricity from entering the water.

On a more positive note, imagine what power we could get if we had these things strategically placed in hurricane territory. Probably do us a lot of good to harness all of that natural power.

@torybarts electricity question.

No, not really. Electricity and water isn't any better than oil and water. I'm sure though, that they use lines high above the water, or underwater lines.

It's easier to clean up spilt electricity than it is to clean up spilt oil; electiricity just sort of makes its way to the ground and dissipates. It might kill a fish or two, or bother a whale sum, but that's about it.

Hmm. Looks like a pretty expensive project, lets all hope that they can turn a profit off of it!

Well, oils done great things, made a lot of people tons of money. But alas, there are actually good things that came from high oil prices: more research for viable forms of alternative energy and people cutting back on emissions.

Hopefully we can get the price of wind turbines and solar pannels down so everyone can outfit their homes with them.

Ninety percent or more of all photovoltaic panels manufactured outside the US are being shipped to Europe because they are willing to pay more for them. We are so addicted to 'cheap everything' that we want to get it at WalMart prices. Energy is going up and that includes solar and wind. You may have to do without a couple of Lattes.

Oh . . . and get all of your friends here at current in on the action. Everybody just send in an extra 10 percent on your utility bill.

@philbangs... and why are they being shipped to Europe?

follow the money... energy resources in Europe are a LOT more scarce than in the US, so maybe PV cells are a bargain COMPARED to the local cost of other sources?

hence they're willing to pay more because it's more of a good economic choice for them?

cheap energy is NOT an "addiction".... check the definition.

using lots of energy because it's cheap is an economic decision, made by millions of people all around the world on a daily basis.

that's economics. if you don't want economics to work that way, virtually the only alternative is a command-directed economy.

in the long run, many folks have found that command-style economies do NOT, in the long run, produce the most benefit for the most people.

if the lattes are more valuable to the buyer than the PV sheets, they're going to drink their earnings, not bolt them to their roof.

Actually, a carbon tax would be a very effective mechanism to bring the price of oil and coal and gas into line with the real cost of using fossil fuels. Read Lester Brown's "Plan B 2.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization" - he makes a compelling case for replacing things like employment and income tax with a carbon tax.

Wind Turbines? I live in Boston.

I'm all for Wind Turbines. Senator Ted Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts is not (as Former Republican Governor Mitt Romney is no fan of it either. No I never voted for the dirtbag). Senator Kennedy lives on Cape Cod. Plans are to put up several of those Turbines. I see the Wind Turbines as harmless down there.

For those of you not aware of this, in Boston (about 2005/2006) Local 103 IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) put up a Wind Turbine. It's a beauty to see from the Highway, Commuter Rail and Subway.

The Local IBEW put it up to make a point. It powers their building.

As far as I know...the Wind Turbine is NOT used to power any of the Subway branch. There is a power station several blocks from there. It would be cool IF they did connect the Turbine to the Subway Line!