4 ms·

My personal pet idea: a big ‘tower’ on the seafloor. Yes, costs are immense, but scaling would really work well. (Making the ‘well’ or tower twice as big would

by plank 4y ago

My personal pet idea: a big ‘tower’ on the seafloor. Yes, costs are immense, but scaling would really work well. (Making the ‘well’ or tower twice as big would not make the cost double). In ascii art: ———| |—— | | |++| With ‘| |’ the walls of the well or tower, —- the sealevel, and ++ the water inside the well. Energy would be gained through letting seawater go ‘into’ the well/water tower. (Edit: attempt to make ascii art work)

moloch-hai 4y ago
You don't need a tower. A boat with a winch and a weight does the job cheaply. For extra credit, more weights.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Limited by the displaced water weight. Prone to storm damage. But the general idea could work and you could even do it entirely under water, saving you from having to dig out a mineshaft, just sink a bunch of caissons to create an underwater tower. As long as they stack and can be re-inforced so they don't end up shearing under the pressure of flowing water. Maybe even open up the sides to a lattice to reduce that resistance.
  - moloch-hai 4y ago
    Existing supertankers can displace in the hundreds of thousands of tons. New, they cost under $100M. Scrap, much less. They are not bothered much by weather, in normal operation. With that much weight hanging well below the surface, they would be very stable. (Racked together side by side, moreso.) Think of it as a very long oil platform. Those endure any weather with no difficulty. No need for anything attached to the bottom except anchor chains. When planning ocean operation, make sure almost everything is at or well above the surface, and everything complicated (motor/generator, winch, power conversion) is well protected from exposure. Ocean deployments that expose expensive stuff to wave action or put it underwater fail, reliably. (Expect tidal generation that puts generators underwater to fail spectacularly.) Offshore wind has the nacelle well encapsulated and everything that moves far above the waves. Nothing is underwater except the pilings, the end of the support post, and a wire.

by plank 4y ago

moloch-hai 4y ago

You don't need a tower. A boat with a winch and a weight does the job cheaply. For extra credit, more weights.

jacquesm 4y ago
Limited by the displaced water weight. Prone to storm damage. But the general idea could work and you could even do it entirely under water, saving you from having to dig out a mineshaft, just sink a bunch of caissons to create an underwater tower. As long as they stack and can be re-inforced so they don't end up shearing under the pressure of flowing water. Maybe even open up the sides to a lattice to reduce that resistance.
- moloch-hai 4y ago
  Existing supertankers can displace in the hundreds of thousands of tons. New, they cost under $100M. Scrap, much less. They are not bothered much by weather, in normal operation. With that much weight hanging well below the surface, they would be very stable. (Racked together side by side, moreso.) Think of it as a very long oil platform. Those endure any weather with no difficulty. No need for anything attached to the bottom except anchor chains. When planning ocean operation, make sure almost everything is at or well above the surface, and everything complicated (motor/generator, winch, power conversion) is well protected from exposure. Ocean deployments that expose expensive stuff to wave action or put it underwater fail, reliably. (Expect tidal generation that puts generators underwater to fail spectacularly.) Offshore wind has the nacelle well encapsulated and everything that moves far above the waves. Nothing is underwater except the pilings, the end of the support post, and a wire.