What are the advantages of pile-breakwaters have compared to mound breakwaters?

As vertical structures, they can be installed in deep water without prohibitive cost increases.

This has several advantages:

1. By intercepting waves in deep water before they break, wave energies are reflected, not dissipated. This causes less damage to structures and results in less turbulences that can cause scouring and sea bed erosion

2. By enabling construction further from shore. The visual impact of the breakwater can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, there are no dangerous near shore currents that can sometimes prove fatal to bathers in current breakwater designs.

3. This means a structure is also not cost prohibitive to build taller, enabling a breakwater to cope with large tidal ranges and potential future sea level rises

The structure is also highly adaptable and modifiable to suit local demands. Piles can be added or removed if conditions change or modifications to the structure are required.

Piles, can be installed significant gaps between them and thereby cause a minimum of disturbances to the passage of water and marine life.  If higher wave energy reductions are required, multiple rows of piles can be used. 

Are Wind turbine blades strong enough after they have been decommissioned?

Damages to the blades are concentrated on the leading edge, and tips. The rest of the blades tend to be undamaged. Available literature suggests that blades have ~ 90% of their strength remaining after 20 years of saltwater exposure.

This is more than sufficient as the forces that wind turbines have to deal with when generating electricity are orders of magnitude greater than wave forces

How will the Breakwater be anchored in place?

In soft sediments deep foundations are needed, in this case the blade itself will be rammed/vibrated deep into the subsurface until a stable foundation is achieved. This can be assisted by vacuum pumps routed through the blade structure.

In areas where this is not possible, the blades will be anchored on concrete gravity foundations. 

How effective are Blade Breakwaters at reducing wave energy?

That depends; Blade Breakwaters can be flexibly dimensioned for each location depending on the demands of each project.

If a beach needs to be stabilized with minimal impact on the local environment, wave energy reductions of 50% could be achieved by a single row of blades with significant gaps between them. 

If a harbour needs 90+% reductions in wave energies, several rows of blades with limited gaps could be required. 

The big advantage is that the system is modular and can be easily adapted to the precise requirements of the project. Blades can even be added or removed if the effects of the structure need to be modified after construction

Are Blade Breakwaters Patented?

We have reserved a patent for; all wave attenuation structures consisting of vertically arranged wind turbine blades or segments of blades.

What about microplastics?

Bio-fouling is a big problem for fibreglass boats, hulls can quickly become covered in barnacles and other forms of marine life. While this doesn't harm the fibreglass, it can be very difficult to remove and increases drag. For Blade Breakwaters, Bio-fouling is exactly what we want. It provides a natural armour, preventing the abrasion of the breakwaters and potential releases of microplastics.