Power from the ocean winds

Journal Article · Sun Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978 · Environment; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.1978.9933081· OSTI ID:6046094

Inglis, D R

No one has been willing to try to moor tens of thousands of floating, megawatt-scale windmills above the moderate depths of the continental shelf off the US Atlantic seaboard. The wind averages from 400 to 700 watts per square meter where on land in New England the wind averages only about 150 watts per square meter. William E. Heronemus proposed such a design in 1972. He also proposed that power from thousands of these units could be converted to hydrogen at sea and part of the hydrogen could be put aside for windless periods in expandable storage tanks under the pressure of the deep sea and it would all be conducted ashore by pipeline, either to be used directly or to be converted into electric power stored in fuel cells. Private and Federal land-based windmill projects are discussed. The present rejection of offshore wind power as an important energy resource for the near future stands squarely on DOE's economic perceptions, not on lack of technical feasibility. The commercial costs of these units are important for the prospects of offshore wind power in two ways - they are so much lower than the costs the DOE has been experiencing for its windmills in gentler winds and the 40-kW windmills will probably soon be in production in at least limited quantities, making it possible to construct a floating offshore demonstration unit using some of these tested turbines. Harvesting the strong offshore winds involves the extra cost of floatation and mooring, but does not require the expensive yaw mechanism that keeps a land-based unit facing the wind.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
• OSTI ID: 6046094
• Journal Information: Environment; (United States), Journal Name: Environment; (United States) Vol. 20:8; ISSN ENVTA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
170100* -- Wind Energy-- Resources & Availability (Climatology)
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
299003 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Unconventional Sources & Power Generation-- Other-- (-1989)
ATLANTIC OCEAN
COMPETITION
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
CONTINENTAL SHELF
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
ECONOMICS
ELEMENTS
FEDERAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
FLUIDS
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN STORAGE
INVESTMENT
MOORINGS
NONMETALS
OFFSHORE SITES
POWER PLANTS
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
SEAS
STORAGE
SURFACE WATERS
VELOCITY
WIND POWER PLANTS