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Unused Oil Rigs Turned Into Wind Farms

wired.com — The Gulf Coast is littered with the carcasses of unused oil equipment. Now those structures are being repurposed to build the first offshore wind farm in the United States.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 31, 2007

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  • liquidc0w, on 10/12/2007, -1/+48This is the BEST idea I have heard all week.
  • cankillar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21they should do this on all the rigs anyways
  • JupiterLander, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18it's important to see who was against the wind farms at cape cod, very wealthy people who do not represent the average American.
  • trghpy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16I hope they consider them as test platforms for harvesting ocean power.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16...including the Kennedy's..
  • nnnr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14I feel like hugging a tree.
  • leffunov, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I hope wind farming becomes more prevalent than ethanol farming is now. Wind farming becomes more useful during the process of global warming, so it will help more in the future. Making huge corn crops is probably a bad idea (might shake up ecosystems).
  • noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Yeah it's the wealthy people, they can't see them from the shore, its the views from their yachts they are worried about. That was apparently a quote from one of them.
  • Mootabolife, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I hope the wind fruit these wind farms produce is tasty!

    MmmmMmmm wind berries.
  • allaboutdatiki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Reporpoise!
  • dggeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11The first thing I thought of when I saw the headline is "Will they stand up to hurricanes?" Well, FTA:
    *spoilers!*

    "Hurricanes could be a problem, so they decided to outfit their windmills with hydraulic lifts scavenged from oil-industry machinery; the system would lower the turbines in the event of a squall."

    Very cool. Doubleplus good on the recycling of old oil machinery.
  • buckdog05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8They should sell on to the Pirate Bay.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11I LOVE how the article pointed out the hypocrites on Cape Cod going NIMBY on the most sensible wind energy proposal I've heard of in the USA.... Funny how the liberal New Englanders are all for renewable energy until it's 20 miles off their shores (and what's the big deal with that anyways) while the southerners are all for wind energy in the gulf.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7This is definitely a better idea than demolishing the unused platforms. California forced oil companies to do that when the put their coastal ban in effect, not considering the fact that they had essentially become artificial reefs with huge communities of fish and other sea creatures depending on them for life, food and shelter.

    And then the Californians were wondering why they were having masses of dead fish wash up on their beaches. Duh! You blew up their homes!

    Anyway, all in all, this sounds like a FANTASTIC idea. *thumbs up*
  • unbeatablpab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Finally, somebody is doing something to help the Earth and mankind at the same time. Those oil rigs are a lot better off now :D
  • Screwy1138, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Hey someone's thinking!
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"repurposed" ? You must be taking management classes :-). Great idea, great story.
  • Screwy1138, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Tree huggers bug me. But dugg up because I felt like it too.
  • Wonderkind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Unused Oil Rig to Wind: "BLOW ME!"
  • danakin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5As a green conservative, this is the best news I've heard all year.
  • Woknblues, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i actually googled the term "green conservative" just to see if you check out.
  • jackhole, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2They call those dolphins.
  • ij00mini, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The irony there is beautiful.
  • SteelChicken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2RTFA
  • chess007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is a great idea! Especially because in California (where a lot of windmills have been set up) bald eagles get killed by them. Scientists don't know why, but the birds fly directly into them. (My guess would be they are trying to ride the wind current.)

    Everything we do has an impact on the environment; even if we do it with the greatest of intentions.
  • t0ken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2this is the best news I've heard this year
  • pintomp3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2doesn't helping the earth help mankind?
  • braddobbie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have to say.... this must be a pretty good article/topic because at this point I don't see any buried/dugg down comments. No reason for the idiots to say something stupid.
  • wiremonkeymommy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1excellent, brilliant idea!!
  • Gadren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Excellent plan -- a kind of "beating swords into ploughshares" sort of thing.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Unused" is the keyword. This is great =)
  • KIERANMULLEN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1pictures would help
  • dvd14, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Would it also be possible to harness hydro-electric power from the ocean's current by attaching equipment to the foundations of these oil rigs?
  • fantasticjon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1here are some:

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1009_031009_moonpower.html

    http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,895835,00.html
  • fantasticjon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is some channel in europe where the daily tides cause very strong currents. They are (or maybe already have) putting underwater wind(water)mills. I will try to find the details.
  • iseebluuue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i heard about this idea somewhere a while back, good to see that it's being pursued. brrrrilliant!
  • BigSlacker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That sounds like a good way to get some revenue from idle capital. The market is a bit limited since non-primary load sources are statistically limited to about 10% of total load. They're getting close to maxed in much of the US already. Primary load cannot be based on something as unreliable as the weather.
  • Screwy1138, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Is there some sort of group for green conservatives? we need a lobbying group (in the spirit of "if you can't beat them, join them").

  • surfspike, on 03/25/2008, -0/+0Wind farms are the next big thing but as usual they suffer from NIMB syndrome (not in my backyard) but this eems to be a fairly remote area and will not blight the landscape and get lots of complaints from local residents as many proposed wind farms do
    http://www.energyconservation.org.uk/texas-is-now- ...
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I thought it said oil "rings", I thought to myself "how in the WORLD are the going to do that?".
  • ezrigcranes, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0We think this is perfect! Great idea. http://ww.ezrigcranes.com
  • adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Please, just shut the hell up.
  • wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Good idea, but how well are those 50 foot blades going to hold up the next time an Ivan or Katrina comes calling into the central Gulf?
  • megaman2005, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2It's BUSH's fault!!
  • noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2I wish I had the money to patent things I think up...

    They would also do well to fit them out with hydroelectric generators to harvest the wave energy as well. May as well have the whole idea.
  • sodypop77, on 10/12/2007, -8/+0Blow it out your gas.

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