livescience.com — One of these hexagonally-shaped islands could generate 250 megawatts (enough power for a small city). Even more power is possible by mooring together several Energy Islands into a small archipelago that could include greenhouses for food, a small harbor for ships and a hotel for tourists.
Nov 12, 2008 View in Crawl 4
mreadeNov 13, 2008
It's good to see that more of these ideas have been coming out lately, now we just need to take action and stop our reliance on non-renewable energy sources.
wolferzNov 14, 2008
hmm a truly renewable energy idea that doesn't suck. Interesting. By making the system floating it reduces impact on the environment around it while making the building and delivery of the platforms much less expensive and much more efficient. At the same time by packing multiple forms of renewable energy into each one you build a form of redundancy. Then a modular design for unlimited expansion capability. When one source of kinetic energy is not available the other will be, and failing that there is always the solar panels, and when they are all working together? Pure genius.I've never been excited about renewable energy because of how staggeringly inefficient and unreliable (both and cost and energy production) all forms were... but this idea might be worth a solid effort.
godlikeNov 14, 2008
Ammm..Why none of the shortsighted notice that energy won't be a concern when the environment can no longer support us?Having in mind the heroin habit of fossil fuels and horribly toxic (and incorrectly handled) nuclear waste, why do these people think we can just go on forever destroying our planet and burning our lungs and bodies with toxic metals and hydrocarbons?It's like: to wish that the rivers weren't all sick with death, but then pour bleach in them.
macrumptonNov 15, 2008
#1 there are no functioning CO2 sequestration facilities.#2 Wind energy is already competitive in several parts of the country, and that is without counting the costs that coal/oil/nukes put on society in the form of health problems and price volatility and security problems. Solar is more difficult, but the price has been decreasing steadily for over 20 years, so at some point in the near future it is going to be cheaper than coal/oil/nukes. Meanwhile we still have not figured out what to do with toxic nuclear waste.