i agree with all of this except, you know, when they will have to do maintenance … i guess they will be (they would be) more simply hauling the whole thing out to work at the surface of the sea … in this scenario the mechanical components would be at the top of the sphere and out of the water.
Yeah, so instead of sending down divers with equipment you’re hauling hundreds of tons of concrete out of the sea, which means aside from a ship and crew which you’d need anyway you’re still going to need specialized equipment (some big honkin’ chains and winches at a minimum) and tools and such, and that stuff isn’t cheap either. Also they’re aiming at a 20 year partial replacement cycle for parts that are going to be submerged in or otherwise exposed to sea water which is notoriously corrosive, some of which will be at fairly high pressure (otherwise the turbines will be less efficient), that seems optimistic at best, even if nothing breaks before the scheduled replacement time, and you certainly can’t count on that.
Yeah, so instead of sending down divers with equipment you’re hauling hundreds of tons of concrete out of the sea, which means aside from a ship and crew which you’d need anyway you’re still going to need specialized equipment (some big honkin’ chains and winches at a minimum) and tools and such, and that stuff isn’t cheap either.
You need specialized equipment also if you send down people to do the job that deep. And given you need to use many more specialized people (not everyone can work at these depths and they are not cheap) with all the associated support infrastructures like decompression chanbers and so on. I doubt that the cost will be lower that simply hauling the whole thing out of water.
My point is that whether you send down divers or haul 400+ tons of concrete and equipment up from the bottom of the ocean, it’s going to be expensive to maintain either way, especially if things don’t go according to plan and they have to perform maintenance more than once every 20 years or whatever.
i agree with all of this except, you know, when they will have to do maintenance … i guess they will be (they would be) more simply hauling the whole thing out to work at the surface of the sea … in this scenario the mechanical components would be at the top of the sphere and out of the water.
Yeah, so instead of sending down divers with equipment you’re hauling hundreds of tons of concrete out of the sea, which means aside from a ship and crew which you’d need anyway you’re still going to need specialized equipment (some big honkin’ chains and winches at a minimum) and tools and such, and that stuff isn’t cheap either. Also they’re aiming at a 20 year partial replacement cycle for parts that are going to be submerged in or otherwise exposed to sea water which is notoriously corrosive, some of which will be at fairly high pressure (otherwise the turbines will be less efficient), that seems optimistic at best, even if nothing breaks before the scheduled replacement time, and you certainly can’t count on that.
You need specialized equipment also if you send down people to do the job that deep. And given you need to use many more specialized people (not everyone can work at these depths and they are not cheap) with all the associated support infrastructures like decompression chanbers and so on. I doubt that the cost will be lower that simply hauling the whole thing out of water.
My point is that whether you send down divers or haul 400+ tons of concrete and equipment up from the bottom of the ocean, it’s going to be expensive to maintain either way, especially if things don’t go according to plan and they have to perform maintenance more than once every 20 years or whatever.