DRIFT
Produce hydrogen on the high seas: a bizarre idea that can be proved to be very useful. The goal is to enjoy the wind that goes from earth to sea.
Wind energy already represents 8% of world production, and has been increasing in recent years. According to, it will be the largest source of renewable energy after solar energy by the end of the decade.
Now, the English company Drift, is trying to extract even more energy from vento offshorethat blows from the earth to the sea.
“We produce renewable energy in the ocean using sailboats and deliver this energy into ports around the world,” explains startup founder and executive director Ben Medland.
Catamarans are equipped with hydrophols that raise them from the water, as well as with a underwater turbinesimilar to a propeller, but which works oppositely, capturing energy as the vessel navigates the water.
“This is the first class of mobile renewable energy,” says Medland. “No network infrastructures. You don’t need cables under the ocean. It doesn’t need foundations, anchors or something. These are, if we want, ‘free reach’ wind turbines.
One of the main components of is an algorithm that seeks “Goldilock conditions” – Wind strong enough to generate energy, but not dangerous: “The Goldilocks algorithm navigates 6 million virtual miles in 0.02 seconds to choose the next mile of optimized route – this type of data was not available for only 10, 15 years.”
But there are obstacles, such as the cost of production, which have to be exceeded. The ship, whose prototype has already been presented, is still very expensive: it costs approximately 23 million euros.
Each ship will have six crew and it is necessary discharge hydrogen in a port, On average, once a week (or only every 10 days, if the time is ideal).
Alasdair McDonald, an engineering teacher, explains the idea: “Wind speeds increase as we move away from the coast, but the depths of water become more difficult for existing wind turbine models and cable distance implies costs and losses. So, the autonomous vessels of power collection become the way to access this power source. ”
