I don't know nearly enough to know if this is bullshit. Cool design though.
Definitely an eye catcher worth waiting to see how it pans out. You only need to watch the first 15min of this doc to get why these few sentences are promising. Also, offshore windfarms tend to have 1 nautical mile spacing between each turbine. In terms of installation cost and leasing area, the footprint alone is enticing. Rather than using massive single components, these Windcatchers are built with smaller pieces that are much easier to work with. Once the floating base is installed, most of the rest can be done on deck, without cranes or specialized vessels, and the grid design allows easy access for ongoing maintenance.
Kinda looks like a venetian blind in search of a window... Here's my concern. There's less breeze on a sailboat, not more, because, well, that wind is pushing against you. Making you move. Etc. So what keeps that thing pointed at the wind generating power? And how "off-shore" is it gonna be when you need to, you know, plug it in for it to be worth bothering with? Sure - a windmill array taller than the Eiffel Tower and wider than the Symphony of the Seas is not going to lack for swept area. It's not gonna lack for unswept area, either, which is what Mama Nature uses to push you over. Its unswept area also appears to be greater in the direction perpendicular to the wind, too... which means they've gotta be pretty actively turning that thing into the weather or shit's gonna get exciting. Surmountable problems, I'm sure... but I'm not sure I'd want to take them on. We're dealing with megastructures already.Just one of these arrays, says WCS, could offer double the swept area of the world's biggest conventional wind turbines – the 15 MW Vestas V236 – and its smaller rotors could perform much better in wind speeds over 40 to 43 km/h (25 to 27 mph), when larger turbines tend to start pitching their blades to limit production and protect themselves from damage.