MARIN (Maritime Research Institute Netherlands) has tested an innovative concept for a floating mega island that could provide future-proof living and working space at sea for developing, generating, storing, and maintaining renewable energy, including offshore wind.
The island comprises 87 large floating triangles that are flexibility connected to one another. Together they form a flexible floating island that can be as large as 1km to 5km in cross-section.
Olaf Waals , project manager and the concept developer: “As sea level rises, cities become overcrowded and more activities are carried out at sea, raising the dikes and reclaiming land from the seas are perhaps no longer an effective solution. An innovative alternative that fits with the Dutch maritime tradition is floating ports and cities.”
The floating islands could also be suitable for use with loading and transshipping cargo in coastal areas where there is little infrastructure, for cultivating food, such as seaweed and fish, and building houses and recreation close to the water.
These types of solutions are part of the Blue Future in which the seas and oceans (70% of the earth’s surface area) are used sustainably, MARIN stated.
MARIN is carrying out this research using computer simulations and model tests in its Offshore Basin (40 x 40 m) in which wind, waves and currents can be simulated at scale.