Eco Factor: Redesigned wind turbines to produce more energy.
With the world walking towards a green future, every company is trying to make records for others to follow. In an attempt to design the world’s biggest offshore wind turbine, engineers from Britain, US and Norway are battling it out to taste success. He aim is to build a massive 10MW offshore machines that is twice the size and power of anything seen before. Arup, a British engineering firm has come up with a design that is inspired by floating oil platform technology and mimics a spinning sycamore leaf.
Dubbed the “Aerogenerator” is a machine that rotates on its axis and would stretch nearly 275m from blade tip to tip and would stand nearly 600ft high above the waves. Each turbine should be able to generate enough electricity to provide 5,000-10,000 homes. Then from Norway comes the firm Sway that is planning to build massive floating turbines that would stick straight out of the sea from 100m-deep floating “masts” anchored to the seabed.
An EU-sponsored research project is also investigating 8–10MW turbines, and other American and Danish companies are planning 9MW machines. Full-scale prototypes of all three leading designs are expected to be complete within three years. These projects have the potential to transform the global energy market forever.
Via: Guardian
