Floating island idea shortlisted

A floating island city fuelled entirely by ’green’ energy has landed a Portsmouth University professor of engineering a place on the shortlist of a national competition.

Prof Carl Ross from the Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering has reached the final five of the ‘Britain’s Bright Ideas’ competition, which involved a national search for energy-efficient ideas, led by energy company npower.

His idea to design a floating island city was the result of his passion for finding a solution to the problems of an overcrowded planet made worse by the threats posed by climate change. Ross believes that floating islands could provide extra space and produce enough environmentally friendly energy from waves, wind and the sun to support their needs.

’There are many islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans that are only a few feet above sea level,’ he said. ’If global warming continues and the sea level rises by about 6.7m as predicted, millions of people will be displaced.’