Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
program was dedicated to working out the details of this paradigm
and to educate the engineers of the future who would help make this
vision a reality.
One of the key technologies in this future was to be ofshore
wind energy. This was a remarkable idea, especially in so far as
there were barely any working wind turbines on land at that time.
Because there were so few working turbines, Heronemus
proceeded to learn as much as he could about the most relevant
experience and vision of others. These included Albert Betz,
Hermann Honnef, and Ulrich Hütter of Germany, Poul la Cour and
Johannes Juul of Denmark, E. W. Golding of the United Kingdom, and
Percy Thomas and P. C. Putnam of the United States. To their earlier
concepts he added support structures for multiple rotors, floating
turbines, fleets of such turbines, and a hydrogen storage system
to firm the power. An example of one of his conceptual designs of
a floating ofshore wind turbine is shown in Fig. 24.1.
Figure 24.1
Heronemus' conceptual design of floating ofshore wind
turbine, UMass, 1971.
These concepts were ahead of their time, and even today there
are no ofshore wind turbines in the United States. Many of the ideas
were fundamentally sound, however, and are still relevant today.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search