3 ms·
>autonomous station keeping with thrusters in the base. This adds far more complexity and risk than you might expect. Redundancy, reliability, etc. all are vit
by cr1895 9y ago
>autonomous station keeping with thrusters in the base.
This adds far more complexity and risk than you might expect. Redundancy, reliability, etc. all are vitally important.
If one of several thrusters fails, and the environmental conditions are too great for the remaining thrusters to match, what happens?
How do you maintain the thrusters? You could have station-keeping with tugs during maintenance, but often maintenance of azimuthing thrusters requires a drydock.
Hypothetically speaking, if all the turbines were somewhat easily mobile, their position could be optimized for the given wind conditions. That could be pretty interesting! Today however that's science fiction.
Furthermore, there's always going to be a subsea tether for power. That's unavoidable.
In any case, moorings of various types are dumb, well-understood, and very effective.
- perbu 9y agoWrt to reliability of thrusters - this is pretty well covered. They have been drilling for oil with unmoored platforms for decades. Here, the requirements for keeping the rig in a fixed position are quite loose compared to a drilling rig. The power tether would be quite minimal. Also, there is the possibility of creating untethered rigs that store hydrogen locally. Probably not feasible atm.
- cr1895 9y ago>They have been drilling for oil with unmoored platforms for decades. Indeed, but this is still a rather different scenario. Drilling platforms engaged in drilling while under dynamic positioning are doing so under a quite reliable and robus classification, DP3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_positioning#Class_requirements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_positioning#Class_requ... These are also manned platforms, having crews and stand-by support vessels to engage in the event something goes wrong. It's also just one vessel with multiple thrusters, not dozens. >Here, the requirements for keeping the rig in a fixed position are quite loose compared to a drilling rig. Good point- the allowable excursions would probably be much greater than for a drilling rig. >The power tether would be quite minimal. Doable, for sure; minimal, I don't quite agree. It's still a complex system. And there's still probably going to be a transmission module for the shore cable. >Also, there is the possibility of creating untethered rigs that store hydrogen locally. Probably not feasible atm. Could be very interesting!