https://newatlas.com/energy/touchwind-floating-wind-turbine/
"We haven't seen a floating offshore wind turbine like this before. Touchwind
claims its innovative single-blade turbines will solve several problems to
drive down cost and downtime, using a single, huge blade with no fancy active
pitch controls.
Most of the world's best wind resources are way offshore, in ocean far too deep
to exploit with typical fixed-tower turbines. The deep sea could thus make a
huge clean power contribution, while creating far less trouble for residents
and wildlife than onshore wind farms.
But the technology to harness offshore wind from floating devices anchored to
the sea bed is far from settled, so there's a gold rush of sorts in progress as
some radically different designs duke it out on the spec sheet, in wave tanks
and in prototype testing. They're all hoping to find the sweet spot between
cost, power generation, cost, longevity, reliability, cost, ease of
manufacture, ease of installation and maintenance, cost, cost and cost.
Dutch company Touchwind has an interesting spin on the idea... waka waka. It's
designed around a massive single-piece rotor, sitting on the end of a pole
that's draped over a big barrel, with a large floating buoy hanging beneath it.
This one huge double blade, says Touchwind, should cost around 30% as much to
make as the triple-bladed arrangements on traditional turbines. It doesn't
require any expensive active blade-pitch control systems, and where most
standard turbines need to shut down in wind speeds above 25 or so m/sec (90
km/h / 56 mph), this one is rated for speeds as high as 70 m/sec (252 km/h /
157 mph). Less downtime equals more productive hours and more energy."
Via Wayne Radinsky.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
