3 ms·
> The key to economical operation is to share a big motor-generator and winch, protected from weather, along a single shaft with a long line of reels and weigh
by closewith 4y ago
> The key to economical operation is to share a big motor-generator and winch, protected from weather, along a single shaft with a long line of reels and weights coupled via clutches.
With respect, placing machinery at sea and protecting it from weather are antithetical.
- moloch-hai 4y agoTell that to cruise-line passengers and offshore wind-turbine operators. The key is keeping parts necessarily exposed to weather simple and sturdy, and the touchy electro-mechanical stuff well housed. A physical shaft between them safely moves power in or out. We see the same dichotomy play out in wave-energy extraction systems, where wave action pumps air through a turbine. The air could easily be conducted via a culvert to a turbine onshore, safely indoors, and shared. But somehow people building those seem never think of it.
- willyt 4y agoConvert semi submersible oil rigs, which are designed for deep water, to grid storage?
- moloch-hai 4y agoIf you are suspending a lot of heavy weights, you need something buoyant enough to hold them all up. An old supertanker would work fine. You make tunnels from the bottom up to the reels, for the cables to run through. You would want to let it turn to face waves, but you need and electrical tie-in to shore, or anyway to the nearest wind farm to move power in and out. All the weights hanging deep under water keep it stable. Motor/generator and winch are maybe where the engine was.
- moloch-hai 4y agoThere will be a hell of a lot of surplus supertankers.