[juststeve]

what about vertical turbines in the water & bolted to the sea floor?

[ggm]

All engineering at sea costs more. Seabed anchoring is a thing, and a higher degree of wind offshore is a thing, but if you do the linear optimisation of the different cost benefit lines I suspect scaling up traditional fan style 3 blades just wins.

It's a "perfect is the enemy of good enough" thing. Better designs along one axis with a multi axis problem won't be best overall.

[p_l]

Doesn't change a thing on how stresses damage the turbine.

Vertical still only makes sense in limited space.

[Clewza313]

Interestingly, vertical designs have been proposed for Mars, because space for shipping them is at a serious premium, and the much lower atmospheric density reduces the stress considerably. (Hollywood depictions of destructive Martian sandstorms are quite exaggerated for effect.)

[juststeve]

what are the stressors? mechanical failure, too much kinetic energy in the waves?