Concepts: Physalia, a Floating Ecosystem

Okay, I was baffled by how turbines could generate electricity on a boat. Turbines could only take energy from the boat's forward motion, which makes it equivalent to a solar-powered flashlight. At night. I found that Gizmodo was also baffled, but Treehugger's article explained it:

The turbines engage when the boat is anchored and are driven by currents. The only power it gets that isn't solar is chance currents, while anchored. And I rather imagine that the flimsy transparent solar panels of the roof capture about enough energy to run the lights. = )

That is: I imagine most of its time will be spent idly charging, and that it produces more energy than it uses by sheer virtue of not using very much or, for that matter, doing very much. I mean, it passively takes in energy from motion and light, and then it's using that electricity to produce motion and light. With maybe a third of its upper surface covered in solar panels, plus random currents underneath, that's just not a hell of a lot of energy going in. Imagine 100% efficiency at every level, and it's still a very, very slow boat.

I don't honestly see how a huge, functionally useless conversation piece qualifies as "green" anything. Whatever reaction it's catalyzing in the water could be done without the boat.

But I get that it's primarily an awareness thing. It just sort of fails as a proof of concept.

@Dirk:
Even if you have no use for a museum or a nightclub, labs and large-scale water purification systems are quite important.

I could certainly make use of a museum or nightclub. I'm just not convinced that a boat that happens to use a certain catalyst in the hull counts as a filtration system. I'd like to see a bit more information on what the hell the plants have to do with it, as well, aside from green cred and a token effort to a negative carbon footprint. ("Token" as in "equivalent to putting a flower pot out.")

If the point is that it's a "museum or night club" that keeps the lights up by solar, well ... yeah, that's cute in a way. = )

Actually, the most efficient power generator is that green foliage, combined surface area of lives must be enormous. Also they can trap moisture that can be collected into drinking water, branches can offer large area of resistance to winds, sun heat, they can even produce some fresh food. The problem is, how to extract all that energy, but perhaps we don't need so much. Instead of one big system, countless small ones can be used.
If other parts of a vessel could be genetically engineered, it would be designed to be self sustained, humans and animals would just live on it, as we normally do on land, powering only the basic needs, like life support, light and communication devices, everything else could function on it's own. It's hull would be grown with dolphin skin on outside, engines would be genetically engineered fins, with simple muscle moving motion, algae providing hydrogen or bio chemical energy in it's belly, steering it with slight electro shocks, illuminated with bio luminescence. Without consciousness and nerve centers, of course, those can be provided by us.
Hollywood is falling behind, this science science fiction is better. It would be nice to see all that genetic abomination come to a good use, we'll need much more than that in space.

I like to see these kinds of creative ideas develop. Whether or not it now achieves everything it says, the fact is, there are always new young kids coming along with creative brains that can see this first hand, and some of these may make really big breakthroughs. Every time some naysayer comes along, I think to myself, yeah, he/she probably has vested interests in Big Oil or something.

"Spaceship Earth" (R.B. Fuller) has a lot of good things going for it - if we can reproduce some of these things and figure out how to make them work, there's no telling how far we might go.

Henry Ford's philosophy was "send me the man who knows nothing about it". And I recall that Albert Einstein was just a lowly patent clerk when he came up with his ideas. So I say, good going, and let's see more of this.

does anyone know if a child can submit really good ideas to an inventors place or etc.??

This concept still requieres plenty of other observations. Yet there is no human construction strong enough to face giant power of ocean driving wild and this might be the reason that such concept and many others dont turn into reality. The risk of investment is far to high and explains the slow motion in shipping development. We always shall see both sides of a coin, I believe, but I also do believe that shipping as a matter of mass transportation under eco and tec view remains a very import issue to humanity growing and growing. Water driven turbines are reality tested already, prime materials such magnesium are getting extremely short on the other side and bio tech aint far enough to substitute lack of light or flexible alloys. But anyway, the veg coverage of this nice looking concept doesnt make sense from any angle or would be a luxury product of ¨swim around in a garden¨

OK love the Idea and all the designs that this guy makes but who is going to biuld them??? The Dragon Fly, Lily Pad, and a few others are way cool and good Ideas and should be biuld but who will help him? I have a few Ideas of my own but I have no real way of getting my Ideas out there with what I got and know how. I will be trying to reach to other people that have somewhat of the Idea already biuld. You can reach me at rwdisland at yahoo