<DrumBeat: January 23, 2009 The Oil Drum Oilwatch Monthly January 2009>
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284 comments on Advice to Pres. Obama (# 4): Go for Wind Power, Seriously

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gr1nn3r on January 23, 2009 - 5:02am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Realistically, would you really want to build state-of-the-art wind turbines on rusting, derelict oil rigs?

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Cyril R. on January 23, 2009 - 4:57pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Maybe geothermal is more suitable for oil rigs. The basalt ocean floor is relatively thin; drilling through seawater is easier than drilling through granite. And drilling is what the rigs are designed for (albeit a rather different type of drilling). They aren't designed to have 5 MWe turbines attached.

But probably not anytime soon. Offshoring is expensive by nature so there's a challenge, and every rig that works reasonably well to be potentially used for geothermal, is needed for producing oil.

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Luke H on January 24, 2009 - 5:43pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Having never been involved off shore oil rig construction I am not presenting but the most general construction view.

All modern designs have a certain life expectancy, an overbuild safety factor and weak points with minimum overbuild. Old oil rigs may or may not have a reuse potential for any thing more than subsurface sheared anchor points for marine habitat.

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Cyril R. on January 25, 2009 - 5:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

It could also be that drilling rigs will be specifically designed and new built for geothermal offshore drilling. If the costs can be reasonable.

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284 comments on Advice to Pres. Obama (# 4): Go for Wind Power, Seriously

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