Minesto latest news:
One of these articles mentions they say they will connect many (100?) of these in a network of some sort.
The second one blithely says it produced its full nameplate power (did it really?), and “powered 1000 homes”. OK I could just as easily say my 10 kW home wind turbine here powered thousands of homes, or at least helped to power thousands of homes, since it is connected to the grid, and puts whatever power we are not using in real time, into the grid, with thousands of homes (or more - who knows?) connected.
My prediction? Well I said several years ago that I figure they won’t prevail in the end, not that I see any particular flaw in the design per se, but only due to certain third-party people promoting it that seem to get most things wrong. I would say though, I could easily imagine problems with the tether longevity, not to mention barnacles, seaweed, fishing tackle, leaks, stuff like that.
Anybody who has built real, working systems knows it is rare that they don’t end up having unforeseen problems of one sort or another. Sometimes the problems can be easily fixed, other times not so easily.
These articles both compare Minesto to Orbital Marine’s twin water turbines on both sides of a long, narrow barge (is barge the right word?) - maybe a tethered boat? A moored boat? Oumuamua?
Sounds like Orbital is establishing the standard for comparison - good for them.
Oumuamua, er, um, I mean, Orbital, makes more power than Minesto, in their current sizes, but, according to Minesto, their power will be cheaper. Well that is easy to say, and the price of power they cite for Orbital is pretty high.
One glaring detail about Minesto that jumps out a me, and probably other wind energy people, is the machined bronze or brass “rotor” has the look of a boat propeller, and I’m pretty sure, by the look of it, was made by a boat propeller company, most likely being the only structure they could find that could handle the stresses involved, without breaking.
But, in my opinion, the rotor solidity is too high, and the blade pitch is too steep, for most efficient power extraction from an open flow. Well, what do I know? I’m just a wind person, but it is a similar fluid dynamics situation. Maybe it works OK, in spite of being less efficient. I’d still be more inclined to place my betz on Orbital, which is a simple design that may easily be improved and expanded over time.
