Green technologies should never have to live apart in ghettos and isolated monocultures. Vulpine Sea Power is a division of Vulpine Designs Unlimited and will see to it that your renewables can be combined in the most creative and productive ways possible, utilising the philosophy of Freedom Of Form to make functionality elegant.
The following are initial concept images and descriptions created in a limited palette of digital LEGO(R) bricks (before I discovered LEGO Universe mode, hence the weird colour scheme) of the first Vulpine Sea Power innovation which needs to be taken to the next level: presenting the Mean Green Marine Electricity Machine, MeGMEM.
Quote source: me, 15th May 2010 on the DeviantArt pages:
Vulpine Sea Power brings to you this cross between invention, engineering and art, the Mean Green Marine Electricity Machines; a combination wind, tidal, wave and solar power station all built into an offshore platform tower complete with its own substation and auxiliary capacity to add conventional offshore wind farms and/or couple together with more of its kind. Scalable, robust, reliable and with power generated no matter what the weather, these MeGMEMs will solve your country’s green electricity needs at the flick of a switch!
This model was created based on an original idea to combine the renewables that can be used at sea and is not based on any real construction or place. It is intended to be an idea to take to renewable energy companies, and handily shows off Vulpine Designs Unlimited’s abilities in offshore platforms, tidal, wave, solar and wind projects (e.g. Lego models to be used as planning aids, NIMBY elimination etc.).
Inspired by:
British Sea Power
current offshore wind farm projects
art by various people depicting wind turbines in clusters and ‘trees’.
My own idea had a good few months ago for a combined renewable energy power stationPlease abide by the Creative Commons license on this one to the letter.
The lower part of a MeGMEM – everything below the tidal booms would be submerged, and the towers could be built to heights to suit sea depth.
Methinks the real thing might have safety rails around this substation, it being elevated so high above the waves to reduce corrosion on the transformers and switching gear… ah well.
With further thoughts, it might as well have a proper roof and walls of some kind over the substation if that’s practicable at the voltages we’re dealing with. The wind turbine columns would help hold the building in place and it’d keep seagulls off the substation. And it could be a solar panel roof. And walls. And solar PV coated columns. This idea is stuffed with renewable energy opportunities.
The landing platforms just above high tide + swell level overlook the hollow interior of the tower, which fills with sea water as the tide comes in and empties as it goes out, turning the tidal turbines below. The mighty columns support the substation and turbines above, and contain the cables for them.
The wave power generators and the solar panels are attached to booms which are fastened to floats that slide up and down with the swell and the tide in slots on the corner of the tower. The solar panels are held high enough above the wave generators to float over any wave crests, whilst being boat-accessible for repair.
Where used in rougher seas, the solar panels could be mounted higher or just on the tower itself and its columns.
The tidal generators are built into the walls just below low tide level, and again lower in the tower base (extra useful in areas with strong currents)
Looking up from underneath, you can see the tidal turbines inside the tower…
Enough to give you vertigo.
Or the Bends.
Wave and solar power booms, with beacon lights to warn vessels (though an area of these things would be surrounded with buoys anyway).
Our little copse of wind turbines, elevated into the wind and just far enough apart not to clash with each other. The columns holding them up are a cantilever balance design. Build this in Lego for real and it’ll be 5½ to 6 feet tall. In Real Life? Erm, huge.
The turbines don’t have to be that high above the sea, really. This was just to see if I could set them high enough to get clearer air when it’s really windy and there’s a hefty swell flinging spray around. The design’s a concept and highly adjustable.
As viewed from the sea.
WIND POWER!!!!1!!one!exclamationmark!!!1
Quite. The cross-shaped thing is to tie them together and gives a possible spot for a helipad in a future iteration of the design.
My favourite picture. *Wants a print*
Thinking about it, you’d probably need a helicopter for this view. I hope it can be an electric helicopter.
Normal offshore wind turbines can be attached to this system too, using a MeGMEM for a substation. Showing the ballast counterweight roots of the turbines here, normally the sea would be up to the chain/rope clamps. Also, gotta love LDD’s backgrounds here, they’ve really come into their own.
Having seen the success of the Strangford Lough tidal current power generator, I posit that similar generators could be fastened to the bases of auxiliary marine wind turbines at the ends of the wave power booms. Indeed, why the heck doesn’t the Strangford Lough tidal turbine have a wind turbine on top of it?
The last picture in the series for the time being: a solitary offshore wind turbine. These and their landlubber brothers are available in real Lego(R) form for purchase from us, pre-built or as parts with instructions, as is almost everything posted here.
MeGMEMs near the shore could also be coupled up with EcoTricity SeaRaser style generators too, and those away from the shore could do something similar, but using large water tanks on the tower just below the substation, which could double up as freshwater towers for water supplies for seafarers or to be piped to the mainland, through rainwater harvesting and small scale desalination.
The towers themselves could be purpose-built, or converted from military platforms like the micronation of Sealand.
The more I think about this, the more ideas I have to couple onto it.
Enquiries regarding collaboration, business partnerships, expansion of the idea and its eventual implementation are openly encouraged. Please see the Contact Us page for an email form.
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