arstechnica.com — Using a NASA satellite that indirectly measures stresses on the ocean's surface, researchers highlight areas of the ocean that have a high amount of wind energy that could be harnessed using floating wind farms.
Jul 13, 2008 View in Crawl 4
jmkiiiJul 14, 2008
Force Field--boing......BLAMO YOURSELF!!!
mononuclearJul 14, 2008
This would never go down but we have so many obese people in the world we would make the movement of these people generate energy and kill two birds with on stone. It would be harder for them to move because the resistance used to generate energy so they would work more and lose weight. The calories they are burning in their body can be transformed into electricity.Or they would just move even less and get fatter... Another idea is all those spinning classes they have in gyms everywhere. We could use stationary bikes to power the gym. For that matter use all resistance based exercises to generate power.
twistymcfisterJul 14, 2008
/queue Journey"Wind farm in the sky keep on turnin!!"
waldo21Jul 14, 2008
Many of the newer turbines simply derate at speeds greater than 50-50 mph. Earlier versions would shutdown completely. Most have a survival wind speed that exceeds gale-force winds, and I'm sure the off shore turbines are engineered to sustain hurricane force winds.Smaller turbines would not solve the problem, and may actually exacerbate it. Larger turbines use the mass of the rotor itself to help mitigate the effects of gusts (or drops in windspeed). Thus a larger mass can better handle severe gusts as it is not so easily perturbed.
waldo21Jul 14, 2008
Based on an earlier comment about the remoteness, and another about hydrogen conversion.... What if some of these sites are located in established shipping lanes, and could be used as refueling stations??? A long way off I know, and nobody has even thought about using hydrogen for a large shipping vessel.. but just a thought..
geometryJul 14, 2008
Hmmm, ever looked up Cape Cod on a map? This article is talking about floating wind farms in the middle of the ocean. Last time I checked not many migratory birds fly between Europe and USA through the middle of the Antlantic. The bird people don't want wind farms close to the coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.
topdawgsJul 22, 2008
Let them experiment with the whole alternative energy thing. As the above poster stated, there better be something changing really soon. Who cares about the dangers of a few birds when an entire species of birds could be wiped out from global warming.<a class="user" href="http://ezinearticles.com/?What-You-Should-Know-Before-Ordering-Your-Direct-Satellite-TV&id=1326386">http://ezinearticles.com/?What-You-Should-Know-Bef ...</a>There will be complaints about every new technology out there.