Fukushima Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Starts Generating Power 181
mdsolar writes in with news about a new wind-energy project off the coast of Fukushima. "A project to harness the power of the wind about 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Fukushima, site of the March 2011 nuclear disaster, began generating power on an operational basis today. The project, funded by the government and led by Marubeni Corp. (8002), is a symbol of Japan's ambition to commercialize the unproven technology of floating offshore wind power and its plan to turn quake-ravaged Fukushima into a clean energy hub. 'Fukushima is making a stride toward the future step by step,' Yuhei Sato, governor of Fukushima, said today at a ceremony in Fukushima marking the project's initiation. 'Floating offshore wind is a symbol of such a future.'"
Re:Nuclear disaster and... (Score:5, Informative)
Tsunami's tend to only be bad where they hit coasts or shallow water. In the open ocean and deep water they move very fast but wave height is usually never more than a meter.
Re:Not unproven (Score:3, Informative)
Really? FLOATING wind turbines are a proven technology? Well then, I suppose that given that this is the first floating deep water wind turbine that your assurances are all we need to know that all the major bugs have been worked out.
Re:Not unproven (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:5, Informative)
You're wrong. Fukushima is still leaking fissile material into the sea: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/world/asia/with-a-plants-tainted-water-still-flowing-no-end-to-environmental-fears.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:4, Informative)
True and do the math as well.
New Wind farm 2 mega watts with 7 more coming soon. And someday it maybe on gigawatt.... Someday.
The Fukushima Nuclear Plant when working. 4,696 MWs Installed and over 7000 MW planned...
So the windfarm is making less than 1/500th the power of the nuclear plant.
Re:Um... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Impressed (Score:4, Informative)
At 20 km offshore, the first 30 meters (100ft) of the turbine would be below the horizon for viewers at ground level.
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:4, Informative)
True and do the math as well. New Wind farm 2 mega watts with 7 more coming soon. And someday it maybe on gigawatt.... Someday. The Fukushima Nuclear Plant when working. 4,696 MWs Installed and over 7000 MW planned... So the windfarm is making less than 1/500th the power of the nuclear plant.
Don't forget that the reactors were able to provide that power reliably and predictably, something which wind power could never dream of doing.
As a friend of mine once said "Environmentalists might bat early, but physics bats last".
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:4, Informative)
The radiation is a few hundret times higher than background radiation, or why exactly is there 20km forbidden zone and a 40km evac zone? ... food grown in that area is not safe for children and young adults, people try to avoid it.
In a 200km zone young couples get urged by authorities not to get children
Re:Not unproven (Score:4, Informative)
I'd say it's not proven until they've been up and running at least a decade or so.
Today is your lucky day. From wikipedia:
The Middelgrunden offshore wind farm---with 20 turbines the world's largest offshore farm at the time it was built in 2000
which is more than a decade ago.
Re:Not unproven (Score:3, Informative)
Really? FLOATING wind turbines are a proven technology?
YES. Ocean engineer here. It seems that wind turbines are not your concern, but the structure upon which it sits? Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] has a decent summary of some of the offshore structures that are used (traditionally for oil platforms, but they can be used for anything). TLPs [wikipedia.org] are a typical approach for something like this.