Tuesday, April 20, 2010

This is really cool, but has nothing to do with sustainability really

Off shore wind/tidal famrs

I've just watched some video on the green tv podcast, and the imagery of a giant grid of wind turbines in the sea offshore from Europe spurred in my mind a recollection and an idea.

Recalled: Tidal energy generation systems that are a series of buoys connected together to form a grid, with hydraulic anchors whereby the up and down of the wave surge pumps hydraulic fluid through the anchor tethers, thereby spinning a turbine and generating energy.

Idea: What if the wind turbines offshore have buoys at their bases that travel up and down with the wave surge, adding that force to the wind energy. Put two turbines into one structure, and zero cost in connectivity as the wind turbines are already connected to the grid. Perhaps that's too mechanically complicated, so simply put the existing buoy technology in place between the turbines.

Thoughts?

Here are some links;

Podcast I saw
http://www.green.tv/!video.feed.rss/technologies

Tidal generation
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/hydro/wave-power/