Could floating wind farms be the future to Britain's electric supply?
The recently developed technology could slash electricity generation to under £85MWh. The electrifying project (excuse the pun) has the potential to open the door for electricity as a serious competitor against gas supply. Recently Sir David Attenborough gave his full support to the Apollo project which pledges to halt climate change. The project aims to develop and refine renewable technology in order to allow for clean electricity to undercut fossil fuels and ultimately assert itself as the cheapest source of energy on the planet.
The pilot scheme which is located in the North Sea has been granted a licence for up to five wind turbines. The purpose of the pilot program is to showcase that the technology is practical on an economically viable scale. Although more to the point how on earth does a weighty piece of unbalanced metal float in the water? Currently many offshore wind farms are restricted from being installed in certain conditions, in particularly deep waters. This is mainly due to the cost of installing such an object, obviously the deeper the waters the larger and more expensive the root has to be.
[caption id="attachment_675" align="alignnone" width="300"] Floating wind turbine[/caption]
At present all offshore turbines are fixed rigidly to the seabed. This in turn creates an expensive and troublesome installation particularly in deeper waters. With the advancement in engineering and reinvigorated design it's now possible for turbines to float within the water and secured down with a three point anchoring system. This permits a much easier and lower cost installation, especially amongst deep water. But how will the electricity be transferred if they are so remotely out at sea? The generated electricity will be transported through 15 miles of export cable to the coast whereby it will be connected to the grid. It's estimated that the five wind turbines could provide electricity for over 19,000 properties.
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- Power has a notably 50% larger cube of wind speed
- Extensive offshore wind resources signify greater and more stable wind speeds
- Electricity can be run through sub sea export cables into the national electrici grid
- Lower installation expenses equate to lower supply costs.