The Windship systems were developed by William Heronemus, an engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Heronemus graduated from both the U.S. Naval Academy and MIT, and then served as a naval engineer and architect until his retirement in 1965. Note the tugboat at the base of the Windship that is delivering the crew that will live and work in the submerged spherical hulls. The hulls will also contain the electrolytic hydrogen production systems that will make hydrogen from the seawater with the electricity generated by the mast of wind turbines.
However, the most important reason to deploy the systems at sea is because the equipment that is located under the water will provide a vast sanctuary for the fish and other marine organisms that will otherwise be driven into extinction by 2010. It is why business and "politics as usual" is no longer acceptable.
The image of a Windship provides a cutaway view of the submerged spherical hulls where the crew will live and work, and where the electrolytic hydrogen production facilities will be located. A hydrogen pipeline along the seabed floor then brings the hydrogen fuel ashore, or to a central underwater hydrogen storage system that will deliver fuel to an international fleet of liquid hydrogen fuel tankers. Unlike oil and gasoline, hydrogen is completely non-toxic and pollution-free, thus no environmental contamination will occur when accidental spills or leaks occur. Most importantly, the submerged hydrogen production equipment will provide a vast sanctuary for the fish and other marine organisms on the seabed floor that are in the final stages of being driven into extinction.
This image published by Popular Science in 1977 provides a cutaway view of the submerged spherical hulls where the crew will live and work, and where the electrolytic hydrogen production facilities will be located. A hydrogen pipeline along the seabed floor then brings the hydrogen fuel ashore, or to a central underwater hydrogen storage system that will deliver fuel to an international fleet of liquid hydrogen fuel tankers. Unlike oil and gasoline, hydrogen is completely non-toxic and pollution-free, thus no environmental contamination will occur when accidental spills or leaks occur.
The mast of wind turbines on a typical Windship could easily rise 500 feet above the waves, and the modularized systems could generate from 1 to 30 megawatts of electricity, depending on how many wind turbines are used. Wind speed increases exponentially with altitude, and as the wind speed doubles, as it typically does offshore, the power output of the wind turbine is increased by a factor of eight, thereby offsetting the higher capital costs of deploying the systems at sea. Within a few years, these systems will quickly make America energy independent of all fossil and nuclear fuels, and eventually turn America into Saudi Arabia-class energy exporter with a fuel that is pollution-free and inexhaustible.
While there will be significant numbers of land-based wind systems, there are many advantages for configuring the units as Windships so that they can be deployed at sea. Consider that roughly 10 million one-megawatt wind turbines will be needed to generate enough electricity and hydrogen (i.e., 100 quads) to make America energy independent of all fossil and nuclear fuels. Given that wind machines are similar to automobiles from a manufacturing perspective, and given that over 15 million automotive vehicles are made in the U.S. annually, it is easy to see how the needed systems could be mass-produced and installed by 2010. But where will the 10 million units be located?
There is a genuine sense of urgency to deploy the wind turbines at sea because according to the most exhaustive analysis ever completed, published in the scientific journal Nature (May 15, 2003), over 90% of the fish in the global oceans have been destroyed in the last 50 years. At the current rate of exponential destruction, the remaining 10% will be lost before 2010, which means we will have allowed the largest and oldest ecosystem on Spaceship Earth to be driven into extinction. If that were not bad enough, the remaining fish are so contaminated with mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants that the fish are unfit to eat.
About Harry Braun
Harry is CEO of Sustainable Partners LLC, a systems integration firm that is involved in a
number of renewable energy projects, including the development of a $180 million wind
farm project in New Mexico. Harry has worked as an energy and environmental analyst
for the past 30 years, and is the author of The Phoenix Project: Shifting from Oil to Hydrogen
(phoenixproject.net). He received a Bachelors degree from Arizona State University in
1971. His undergraduate work was in history and general science, while his graduate work
focused on evolutionary biology and anthropology. His post graduate research has been in
the areas of energy and the environment, as well as the on-going developments in molecular
biology, protein engineering and nanotechnology.
Harry ran for Congress in 1984 against John McCain. He is Chairman of the Hydrogen Political Action Committee
(h2pac.org) and author of the proposed Fair Accounting Act legislation. Harry has been an Advisory Board
Member of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (iahe.org) since 1981. This international peer-review
professional society, which is comparable to the American Medical Association, is composed of hundreds of
scientists, chemists and engineers from over 82 countries. Harry’s religious views are based on molecular biology,
which infers that the protein-scale nanobes are in fact our biological creators, and they represent the “soul” and or
“spirit” of every living organism. Harry is member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation (alcor.org), a non-profit
organization that freezes people when they die in the hope that they can be regenerated in the future (with all of
their past memories) into a biocybernetic "designer gene" era. For information on Harry or his availability for providing
lectures, seminar presentations or radio and TV interviews, please contact Lucille Hays at the following address:
