Texas Company Will Recycle Offshore Oil Platforms for Wind Turbines
Wind Energy Systems Technology (WEST) will use old oil platforms to support new wind turbines. Herman Schellstede, CEO of WEST, holds sixty-seven U.S. patents and ten international patents, and is a naval architect and marine engineer. His partner, Harold Schoeffler, is a longtime Louisiana environmentalist, having co-founded Save Our Coast. The company is presently engaging in wind monitoring activities, shown in the picture at left. Still, I haven’t seen any announcement of any turbines actually being built on these recycled oil platforms. Wired has a nice story with great visuals dating from Feb. 2007. If anyone has more recent news, please comment below. Remaking old oil platforms into clean energy sources is a beguiling idea, but it would be even more charming to actually see wind turbines producing wind off the coast of Texas.
This is exactly the type of ingenuity that will move renewable energy forward. If you’re interested in learning about other similar investment opportunities from companies like MilBank, SunPower, GE, BP, Nordbank, JPMorgan, First Solar, etc, I suggest you attend the Renewable Energy Finance Forum-Wall Street (http://www.reffwallstreet.com), June 18-19 in NYC. Considering the US economy to date, knowing which investments are worth the risk—such as repurposing oil platforms for wind energy–is more important than ever.
[...] “Texas Oil Co. Will Recycle Offshore Oil Platforms for Wind Turbines”: CleanTechnica [...]
I wonder how much underground cable it will take to get all that electricity to shore…
I wonder how many hurricanes it will take to knock it down.
I wonder how much government subsidies it will take to make this stupid idea economically feasible.
This is exactly the kind of silly idea that should be allowed to stand or die on its own merits.