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Interesting idea. I think the problem is with getting salty water everywhere. Salt is the main killer out on the ocean. Also, it you lower it enough you will en

Interesting idea. I think the problem is with getting salty water everywhere. Salt is the main killer out on the ocean. Also, it you lower it enough you will end up with the blades in the water, I really don't think you want that during wavey weather. Anyway, this extra height would solve a non-problem. It makes little difference if a human has to climb 100 or 300 meters. It's still work at heights - same kind of protocols and gear. If it's something that the humans can't fix (replace the gearbox or something massive) - then you need a crane anyway. Maybe the only issue would be with the waves moving the turbines enough to make the humans seasick at that height. Not sure, I can't see the whole article.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
It's basically a fiberglass tube. Corrosion from a quick dunk is a trivially solve-able issue since everything that could corrode will already need to be protected enough fora decades long service life in salt spray. I can't see sinking it for routine maintenance being cost effective. Even at a hundreds of dollars per man hour it's still probably not gonna be cheaper than making the maintenance people climb a ladder. That said, being able to lay over the main tube at like 60deg would make it way easier to construct them since you could use a much smaller and cheaper crane to assemble and it would minimize the side to side movement caused by rolling. You basically just need a cleverly engineered chamber to pull that off since the ship can have all the pumping hardware.
- flavius29663 5y ago
  > lay over the main tube In my opinion, the main tubes are nowhere near strong enough to support the weight that way! They are weaker than they appear. The companies can built them so high because they gave up the idea that the tower can withstand any wind thrown at it and still oppose the wind enough to produce energy. Instead, smart computer programs turn the propeller angles independently, so that when the blade reaches the top (where it exerts maximum torque trying to topple the tower), it is angled such that it won't catch too much wind. Then when the blade is near the bottom, it's turned again in order to capture most wind.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

It's basically a fiberglass tube. Corrosion from a quick dunk is a trivially solve-able issue since everything that could corrode will already need to be protected enough fora decades long service life in salt spray. I can't see sinking it for routine maintenance being cost effective. Even at a hundreds of dollars per man hour it's still probably not gonna be cheaper than making the maintenance people climb a ladder. That said, being able to lay over the main tube at like 60deg would make it way easier to construct them since you could use a much smaller and cheaper crane to assemble and it would minimize the side to side movement caused by rolling. You basically just need a cleverly engineered chamber to pull that off since the ship can have all the pumping hardware.

flavius29663 5y ago
> lay over the main tube In my opinion, the main tubes are nowhere near strong enough to support the weight that way! They are weaker than they appear. The companies can built them so high because they gave up the idea that the tower can withstand any wind thrown at it and still oppose the wind enough to produce energy. Instead, smart computer programs turn the propeller angles independently, so that when the blade reaches the top (where it exerts maximum torque trying to topple the tower), it is angled such that it won't catch too much wind. Then when the blade is near the bottom, it's turned again in order to capture most wind.