Continuing with the renewable energy theme of yesterday's post, MIT Technology Review reported last week on plans to install deep-sea floating wind turbines. An interesting feature of the turbines developed by Blue H Technologies is that they have reverted to the two-blade rotor design, which is lighter and cheaper to build. (Three-blade designs are better for onshore wind farms because they turn at slower speeds and are less noisy.)
Martin Jakubowski, Blue H co-founder, estimates that their wind farms will deliver wind energy for seven to eight cents (US) per kilowatt-hour, "roughly matching the current cost of natural gas-fired generation and conventional onshore wind energy". Paul Sclavounos, a mechanical engineer and a specialist in naval architecture at MIT, believes current technology is nearly competitive:
In Sclavounos view, the economics of the power industry are already approaching a tipping point that will drive rapid adoption of floating turbines. "The technology is essentially proven," he says. "We know we can design [platforms] and spars that are not going to move in big storms. What is going to lead to this industry taking off will be the economics. When carbon-emissions trading markets start maturing, you're going to see this industry take off, even without state subsidies. We're not far from it."
The MIT Technology Review, by the way, is a mine of interesting information on the latest technological developments on energy, biotech, nanotech and other fields.
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