Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

kozuh, HAPPY NEWS

Whopper of a wind farm opens off Britain
World's largest offshore project has 100 turbines — so far
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 9/23/2010

LONDON — The world's largest offshore wind farm had its grand opening Thursday — and its location on
the estuary of the Thames River makes it a showcase for Britain's push to move beyond fossil fuels.


(Stefan Wermuth/Reuters) A boat powering through the Thames estuary on Thursday provides perspective of just
how big the wind turbines there are. .. more .. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39324391/ns/us_news-environment/

BETTER STILL FOR YOU! A GLOBAL COCKTAIL ..

US Government Approves First Offshore Wind Farm



A huge, green victory occurred today when the United States federal government gave the green light to the nation's first offshore wind farm. The controversial plan has been under review by the government for over nine years. The plan is to install 130 turbines off the coast of Cape Cod. The program will harness the strong ocean breezes and provide electricity to homes and businesses. The US is currently behind Europe and China when it comes to providing this renewable and affordable energy. The Cape Cod plan is the first of many proposed wind farms that will be built along the Atlantic coast. “America needs offshore wind power, and with this project, Massachusetts will lead the nation,” Governor Deval Patrick declared at the Statehouse on Wednesday. While there are differences of opinion, he said, “on balance, Cape Wind is good for our environment and good for our energy needs.” [NYT]
http://www.passportmagazine.com/blog/index.php?/archives/900-US-Government-Approves-First-Offshore-Wind-Farm.html

Wish you had given me one of these first .. didn't think of it earlier .. sometimes we just don't think as well as we should .. eh? .. nudge nudge ..

These two are a bit of a let-down for me ..

Sustainable Energy Research: Offshore Wind Energy
* Dr. Dong Jeng

Innovative approaches for wind, waves, offshore wind farm and seabed interaction: a coupled model

Renewable energies have considerable potential and could theoretically provide a nearly unlimited supply of relatively clean and mostly local energy. In general, renewable energy supply has been growing strongly; the annual growth for wind energy, for example, has been around 30% recently, albeit from a very low base. Onshore wind energy has grown enormously over the last decade to the point where it generates more than 10% of all electricity in certain regions. However, due to the limitation of land-use for onshore wind farms, offshore wind energy promises to become an important source of energy in the near future: it is expected that by the end of this decade, wind parks with a total capacity of thousands of megawatts will be installed in European seas.

Although numerous offshore wind farms have been constructed in EU and USA, no such a facility is available in Australia. Development of green (renewable) energy has been recongised as an alternative and favor option in Australia. It is expected that offshore wind energy will be an important renewable energy in Australia in the next decade. Thus, it is desired to develop the technique of Offshore Wind Farms (OWF) now.

The innovation of this project lies in the extension of the existing models for OWF from individual aspects to a coupling model. Most existing models have been limited to either fluid-soil or fluid-structure or soil-structure interaction. Thus, the major objective of this project is to integrate them into one model, which allows engineers to have a better understanding of the full process of the flow, soil and structural problem of offshore wind farms.

In this project, six (6) new PhD students and a research fellow will involve in the development of each component
and coupling process. This project is fully supported by USyd Sustainable Energy Research (SER) Scheme over 2007-2009.
http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/civil/environmental/project_offshore_wind.shtml

Should have checked old reliable earlier .. darn .. seems no off-shores in Australia yet ..

Offshore wind farms


Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen.

Europe is the world leader in offshore wind energy, with the first offshore wind farm being installed in Denmark in 1991. As of 2010, there are 39 offshore wind farms in waters off Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, with an operating capacity of 2,396 MW. More than 100 GW (or 100, 000 MW) of offshore projects are proposed or under development in Europe. The European Wind Energy Association has set of 40 GW installed by 2020 and 150 GW by 2030.[10]

As of November 2010, the Thanet Offshore Wind Project in United Kingdom is the largest
offshore wind farm in the world at 300 MW, followed by Horns Rev II (209 MW) in Denmark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_farm

Now, kozuh, listen up, eh .. next time give me the HAPPY NEWS, FIRST .. please .. nudge nudge .. remember now .. happy news first. .. chuckle ..

Thanks for bringing the topic up .. it's been good to catch up on it.