Use of marine current turbines to reduce hurricane intensity in the Gulf of Mexico

The installation of arrays of turbines in the water passages between the Antilles Islands may be a way of reducing hurricane damage to the Gulf Coast and to the industries in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) while supplying non-polluting electric power to the Islands. The back pressure of the turbines should cause some water to divert around the Caribbean Sea and the GoM, and feed directly into the Gulf Stream. The Loop Current (LC) in the GoM influences the intensification of hurricanes, so reducing LC strength should reduce the volume and change the location of the warm water that accumulates and supplies energy to passing hurricanes. The response of the LC to the installation of turbines is studied with the aid of a simple model in which wind and other forces drive tropical water into the GoM and raise its level above that of the Atlantic. Gravity causes the GoM to drain back into the Atlantic via the Straits of Florida and the Florida Current. The model relates reduction of LC throughput to the power extracted or diverted by the turbines, and helps to explain why the LC follows a narrow hairpin-shaped path. The model fails to predict that the turbines will cause a significant shortening of the hairpin path that would keep it away from New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast, thereby reducing the hurricane danger. Future refinements of the model may validate the hurricane reduction benefit of the turbines. A robust prediction of significant hurricane protection is necessary in order to induce Gulf Coast governments and industries to invest in turbines whose power output would benefit the Antilles Islands. This paper also suggests that the proper location for large installations of turbines is in the Antilles water passages rather than the usually-proposed Florida Straits or Florida Current. Turbines in these GoM outlets will retard drainage of the GoM, raise its sea level, and increase the hurricane danger.