The luck we have today is that the era of innovation is at the foot of the street, this is why every time wind farms are more frequent in many landscapes of our environment (for some more than for others).
This means that we bet on renewable energies, in this case wind energy, and in that area clean energy is generated that is extended to the electricity grid.
However, the main problems that these wind farms may have are the deaths from birds and wind turbines itself, since occupy a space and are only operational when there is a flow of wind adequate, which is conditioned by the orography of the land.
However, there are large areas of the globe where the wind is more constant and does not occupy a "usable space", I mean ocean.
We will continue to have the landscape impact and the death of certain birds as the main problems, although when installing a wind farm in the sea, these inconveniences decrease considerably.
Floating wind farms
In fact, it is not a ridiculous idea as offshore wind farms are nothing new, however the scoop in this article is that Scotland has inaugurated a new wind farm (At the moment it has only installed one turbine waiting for another 4) with the peculiarity of float and therefore be able to go out to sea.
This is a challenge that could represent the future of wind power generation.
The manufacturer of the floating platforms for windmills, the Norwegian company Statoil wait to the technology is popular in countries with long coastlines like Japan, Great Britain and the western coast of the USA.
These wind turbines have been located 25 km offshore, off the coast of the town of Peterhead.
And the fact that a wind farm “floats” is not the only thing that can attract our attention but that it can independently power around 20.000 homes.
I do not know if you have ever had the opportunity to be under a wind turbine or have found specialized trucks for transport on the road, but I assure you that it is impressive.
Well, they must be even more impressive these wind turbines as They are 175 meters high, including the propellers, and weigh about 11,5 tons.
And in turn every propeller reaches about 75 meters (equal to a small passenger plane), is more, in the Called "box" gondola where are all the components that make the wind turbine work (the rotor, the multiplier, disc brakes, generator, ventilation system ...) and in turn hold the propellers They could take freight cars.
On the other hand, another rather curious fact about this wind farm is the software that contains and controls the system.
This software is able to rotate propellers to compensate for wind and waves ensuring that the park is always operational.
In addition, the base is filled with iron ore to increase weight and the maximum depth of the sea in the place where the turbines are installed is 1.000 meters.
As you can see, these people like big things.
Obstacles
The main obstacle is project cost.
The manufacturing costs of the system are too exaggerated so its creators hope to see them reduced with the passage of time and the expansion of the facilities.
On the other hand, we also have the disadvantage that I have commented before and that is the death of many birds, especially if we already know the measurements of this gigantic wind farm.
An environmental group already anticipate that many seabirds will die when colliding with these propellers while their creators maintain that it is daring to start saying that kind of thing when it is not known for sure how many birds fly over the area.
To avoid these kinds of problems must of do a study to identify the usual step of this sea birds and to locate the wind farm in a place that interferes as little as possible because that the impact is zero is impossible.
I also wonder, on a personal level, if it is really worth building this type of gigantic facility.
The fact that they can "float" and go out to sea is a very good advantage but the excessive size is unnecessary.
Manufacturing costs are important data, but so are the impacts that will cause when manufacturing and transporting it causing a great environmental impact.