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.’
Ross added: ’Some 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, so it makes sense for humankind to colonise the oceans for their benefit. If scientists and engineers are given the tools, we can find a solution.’
His plan is for a city above sea level, supported on several concrete tubular pillars with a platform ‘resting’ on the top made of glass fibre, which is 50 times stronger than concrete under compression. Each island is designed to accommodate a population of around 150,000 and would incorporate all the facilities of a regular city, such as schools, a hospital, leisure facilities, services, industrial complexes and shops.
Ross said: ’I’m thrilled to have reached this far in the “Bright Ideas” contest. I’ve always wanted to transform one of my ideas into a full-blown invention, so it’s great to have the support of some real experts. Maybe in 10 years everyone will be living on a floating island city.’
He joins a shortlist of ideas from inventors up and down the country and his competition includes a bicycle-powered USB charger and a domestic water wheel.
The winner of the competition will be announced later this month.
Great idea but totally missing the point! Given that the world is already over-populated and that there are now – depending upon which analysis you read – between 2.5 and 4 times too many people on the planet for the planet’s resources to support, how does simply sticking people onto floating cities solve the problem? What will they eat? We’re now overfishing the seas to such an extent that there will be nothing in the sea for them to use. And what about their waste? Pour that into the sea as well?
We need to focus on reducing the growth of the world’s population and making better use of the existing resources, rather than carry on in the same way in terms of our impact on the environment. Maybe rising sea levels is simply “Nature’s way”?
You can build Floating Island Farms to grow food for mankind. The agricultural method of growing food, known as hydroponics can be used.
I have to agree. He’s missing the point and his “solution” still needs some changes. How will people living on floating islands deal with storms at sea? I believe he is thinking in the wrong direction. We need to focus on preserving the planet we have now, instead of making up these dream projects.
I agree that his idea sounds as though it is not well thought out. Then again when one gets totally enthusiastic about something, the possiblity lies that there will be meaningful oversights.
The concept of self sustainability using forces of nature seems similar to what current small islands are trying to move away from.
Take the Caribbean islands for example, they are surrounded by water and significant wave action to harvest that energy. Yet problems such as inaccessiblity to a safe steady supply of fresh drinking water has not been accomplished.
The islands as they are cannot sustain their needs sufficiently by using the forces of nature and vegetation.
While small islands are trying to expand, is it that larger countries are looking to relocate? I mean where are we going to place 6bn people, and still have sufficient natural resources which can easily be regenerated?
Our concept of floating island cities, also includes building floating island farms to complement the cities. These farms will use hydroponic agriculture; where all you need to grow your food is water, sunshine , nutrients & air; you do not require soil. Thus, as the Earth’s land, covered by water, is nearly 3 times the area of the Earth’s dry land, you should be able to grow your own food and even have a vast surplus of food. Moreover, vegetables grown though hydroponic agriculture are less prone to root disease and can be grown more efficiently than through conventional agriculture. As the floating island city is surrounded by water, you could provide a lot of energy from wave energy, tidal energy, solar energy, wind energy, and also from human waste, you can run a small power station using bio-mass energy. Thus through the use of bio-mass energy, and other environmentally friendly methods of producing energy, not only can you dispose of your human waste, you could also provide so much energy, that you could export some of it to the mainland. Regarding coping with storms at sea, the floating island is tethered to the sea floor, by suction pads at the bottoms of several vertical tubular pillars, just like the Troll Gas Drilling Rig. Thus, the platform itself is some 50 m above sea level and can be designed to be even higher, if required. Transport in the island can be through electrically powered vehicles; which although not as powerful as petrol & diesel driven vehicles at present, will come into their own right in a few decades from now. See our joint paper on: [1] Ross, Carl T.F & Rodriguez-McCullough, Ricardo. (2010). “Conceptual Design of a Floating Island City”, Journal of Ocean Technology, Vol. 5, No.1, April, 2010.
Gets my vote.
BRAVO Prof. Carl Ross !!!
Keep up the good work.
Graphene can be used to convert sea water into drinking water.