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by throw-qqqqq
218 days ago
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I think nradov has a point about the physics. > The power required would be the same as that provided by the bunker fuel engines in common use And that is a lot of power! Emma Mærsk has an engine output around 80-90MW. The largest off shore wind turbine today is 26MW with a rotor diameter north of 300m/1000ft(!!). Common (modern) offshore wind turbines today are about 10-15MW with rotor diameters of ~220m/720ft. I will not conclude it is impossible at this end of the scale, but you need a huge foil area to match such engine output. IIUC, the physics work against us as we scale up in size, because of the square/cube-law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law (weight of the foil/sail + mast is cubed when the area is squared). |
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