A Swiss scientist and researcher has developed an inexpensive method for creating a green eco-friendly power station capable of producing hundreds of megawatts: massive floating “Islands” of solar panels at sea. Thomas Hinderling, the CEO of a privately held Swiss research and development company has already secured $5 million to fund construction of the huge floating power stations.
Hinderling’s idea is brilliant in its simplicity; the plan is to create huge floating solar islands, many miles in diameter and loaded with solar reflecting mirrors. The heat reflected from the mirrors will evaporate into steam which in turn drives a large turbine creating a near endless supply of clean energy.
Of course, the idea of massive solar generating plants isn’t new. “Fields” of solar panels have been used on land for many years, but new research is suggested that creating floating islands of solar panels at sea has many benefits and can potentially produced much more energy.
For example, a floating solar island can be easily turned to align its solar panels with the position of the sun, and maximize the efficiency of the panels. There are other big benefits as well.
For example, placing solar panels on land prohibits the land owner from planting crops or grazing livestock on the same plot of land. But because two thirds of the earth is covered with ocean, there are literally thousands of square miles of unused “area” that is currently going to waste. And even though the solar islands could potentially be massive in size (as big as 20 or even 40 square miles), the seas are so vast that there is virtually no chance of them interfering with shipping lanes or fishermen.
Researchers say that it might even be possible to combine the floating solar islands with ocean-based wind farms, maximizing the potential energy that could be a harnessed.
Although it sounds like a great idea, critics point out that there are still unanswered questions about Hinderling’s proposal. Specifically, a practical method of transmitting power from the middle of the ocean to the mainland must be obtained.
Although land-based solar energy generation encounters the same problem, the floating islands will also have to contend with storms at sea, shifting wind currents and waves, making it potentially more difficult to transmit the energy to where it is needed.
But assuming Hinderling and his research team can find a practical and inexpensive method of transmitting the energy, gigantic floating “islands” of solar-energy receptors could soon the dotting the seas of the world.
