Posted on 06/11/2021 12:16:43 PM PDT by Red Badger
A single Windcatcher floating offshore grid could power 80,000 European homes at grid-parity pricesWind Catching Systems VIEW 4 IMAGES
Norway's Wind Catching Systems (WCS) has made a spectacular debut with a colossal floating wind turbine array it says can generate five times the annual energy of the world's biggest single turbines – while reducing costs enough to be immediately competitive with grid prices.
Standing more than 1,000 ft (324 m) high, these mammoth Windcatcher grids would deploy multiple smaller turbines (no less than 117 in the render images) in a staggered formation atop a floating platform moored to the ocean floor using established practices from the oil and gas industry.
Just one of these arrays, says WCS, could offer double the swept area of the world's biggest conventional wind turbines – the 15 MW Vestas V236 – and its smaller rotors could perform much better in wind speeds over 40 to 43 km/h (25 to 27 mph), when larger turbines tend to start pitching their blades to limit production and protect themselves from damage. The overall effect, says WCS, is a 500 percent boost in annual energy output, with each array making enough power to run 80,000 European homes.
Rather than using massive single components, these Windcatchers are built with smaller pieces that are much easier to work with. Once the floating base is installed, most of the rest can be done on deck, without cranes or specialized vessels, and the grid design allows easy access for ongoing maintenance. WCS says these arrays are ready for a 50-year service life, as opposed to the 30 years of a single large turbine.
The company says it's ready to start delivering offshore wind power on debut at grid parity – meaning at a levelized cost of energy (LCOE, taking capital costs into account) matching or beating the price of grid power. In Norway and the USA, that currently averages out at about US$105 per megawatt-hour. The US Energy Information Administration currently projects the capacity-weighted LCOE of new offshore wind assets coming online in 2026 to average $115.04 per megawatt-hour, with some regions capable of getting that under US$100.
To give you a sense of scale, WCS has pictured the Windcatcher grid alongside the 1,063-ft-high Eiffel Tower, among other thingsWind Catching Systems So this will still be a relatively expensive way to generate electricity, especially compared to land-based wind and solar, but it could still be a cost saver for offshore wind. And WCS says its projections are based on an initial installation size that it believes will become significantly more economical as it scales up.
The company has the backing of investment companies North Energy and Ferd, and has developed the technology in conjunction with offshore wind supplier Aibel and the IFE Institute for Energy Technology.
WCS has not yet released further details about prototypes or first installations, so while it does have the appearance of a legit technology, it seems we'll have to wait some time before it proves its claims.
Source: Wind Catching Systems
https://windcatching.com/
So it’s a top heavy, wind resistor that floats. Better have some hella wicked ballast.
Wow! And they are so beautiful! And they are perfect perches for thousands of sea birds!
Nothing can go wrong!
No chance of sabotage, either!
How many birds will they kill each day?
A whole herd of them would look so good right off Martha’s Vineyard.
Just hang out at the bottom and live off of the dead birds! If you can fend off the sharks! LOL
Gonna need one big extention cord
Awesome new way to waste money and destroy the environment simultaneously…
Sea Gull salad is a byproduct.
How cute!
Doesn’t look like it would stay afloat for very long.
And, BTW, wind power isn’t free. Whatever is on the downwind side will receive less wind energy than before, thus a windmill changes the environment more directly than burning fuel.
Burn coal. It’s cheaper.
The US Energy Information Administration currently projects the capacity-weighted LCOE of new offshore wind assets coming online in 2026 to average $115.04 per megawatt-hour, with some regions capable of getting that under US$100.
Looking at my bill, I pay $0.0763 per KWHS. That is of course with a coal fired power plant that will be shut down 12/31/21 because we will switch to solar and wind her in Washington State. I am sure the price should go down. /s
So it’s a top heavy, wind resistor that floats. Better have some hella wicked ballast.
Hurricane season should be spectacular.
I wonder how they will work in the winter when they ice over from sea spray.
And how they will handle a nor’easter type storm.
They will have to shut the entire thing down if one component fails. I bet they haven’t figured on that one. How to receive the power from that platform? Spin more copper wire, of course that requires oil/gas/coal/hydro to mine, ship and smelt. Oil to make insulating cover for the wires. Shall I go on?
Pardon me for thinking, but we’re talking Norway here; where as a former Norwegian himself once told me, “There is 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad weather”. This calls to mind, photos of metal structures encrusted with ice a foot thick. With these things anchored out in Norwegian waters, how are those magic rotors going to operate when encased in ice? And covered with tons of ice, what keeps the whole shebang from capsizing? Those boys need to lay off the aquavit (sic) and head back to the drawing board. In the Caribbean it might work. But Norway?!
Looking at my bill, I pay $0.0763 per KWHS.
Here in the PRoNJ, I pay 13.3 cents per KWH. So, they’re gonna decrease my bill by maybe 20% if this all works the way they say, which it won’t.
And monkeys could fly out my butt.
and all powered by a friendly little 7000 mega watt nuclear reactor...rate increase??...what rate increase...
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