I daresay they wouldn't generate enough power to move one of those.Particularly as the movement of the ship could decreased the relative wind speed (unless it sailed into the wind).
Edit: Now I feel a bit rude. Excellent shoppery, sir!
(Edit: Now I feel a bit rude. Excellent shoppery, sir!
Ghostwriter can't pick up his pencil,
Thu 11 Feb 2010, 10:52,
archived)
Okay, so a standard wind farm size turbine is 2.5MW, but they only produce approximately 25% of that at any one time due to fluctuations in wind speed etc.I looked up some oil tankers, and I found a medium sized one with a 8.5MW engine powering it.
I'm too lazy to think about how it would work if the wind was parallel to the direction of travel, so if we assume it's perpendicular instead ... And suggest that they'd be more efficient far out to sea (say, 50%), you'd need 8 turbines to power the engines. This does not take into account the extra weight and drag caused, which would both take power, and also the electricity used by the ship aside from the engine.
I'm a bored engineering student. Can you tell?
(I'm too lazy to think about how it would work if the wind was parallel to the direction of travel, so if we assume it's perpendicular instead ... And suggest that they'd be more efficient far out to sea (say, 50%), you'd need 8 turbines to power the engines. This does not take into account the extra weight and drag caused, which would both take power, and also the electricity used by the ship aside from the engine.
I'm a bored engineering student. Can you tell?
Ghostwriter can't pick up his pencil,
Thu 11 Feb 2010, 11:14,
archived)
And there is a lot of drag.There's a reason they don't put them close together, because they will literally stop the wind.
( Ghostwriter can't pick up his pencil,
Thu 11 Feb 2010, 11:19,
archived)
a large super tanker can burn a ton of oil a day.surely the weight in saved fuel oil would cover the weight added by the turbines.
As for side wind...i guess the turbines would turn into the wind, to enable the tanker to carry on in the direction it was going. Just like old sailing ships,insteadof "tacking" it would be able to go straight?
(As for side wind...i guess the turbines would turn into the wind, to enable the tanker to carry on in the direction it was going. Just like old sailing ships,insteadof "tacking" it would be able to go straight?
Hummel Who died and made you....oh wait....,
Thu 11 Feb 2010, 11:38,
archived)