How do floating wind turbines work? With 5 companies winning the first US leases to build wind farms off California's coast, let's take a look
- Written by Matthew Lackner, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UMass Amherst
Northern California has some of the strongest offshore winds in the U.S., with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it also has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off quickly, making building traditional wind turbines directly on the seafloor costly if not impossible.
Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep – roughly the...