I think an early version of this was tried for the Mulberry harbours used in Normandy in 1944.
Another method would be lots of bubbles somewhat off the coast using compressed air and pipes. That does break waves, but comes with another set of problems.
ETA:
When my brain remembers where it picked up this nugget I’ll post it in the history thread.
(Or did I already post it there last year? Hmm…)
“We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas, and instead invest in them adequately,” said Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, to applause in the room.
Those in the industry “work night and day to torpedo a transition to renewable energy and then have the audacity to critique the slowness of the transition itself,” said Jeff Ordower, North America director of 350.org. “Cera Week should highlight a global vision toward a clean and equitable future, and instead, we get talking points from the 1970s.”
and then the IEA enters the room;
According to the IEA, which has called the fossil-fuel industry “a marginal force at best” in investing in the transition to clean energy, oil and gas use would have to decline by more than 75% by 2050 if the world is to keep to the internationally agreed goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C beyond pre-industrial times.
Abandon that fantasy and do what instead, focus on building nice graves to impress alien archaeologists? “Ooh, look how many stocks this one was buried with!”
Data mining is driving demand in Texas, where bitcoin and other crypto miners have requestedthe equivalent of roughly 41 new nuclear power plants to power their energy-intensive computer processes to generate the cryptocurrency.
no, not a typo; from the embeded link:
As evidence, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has 41 gigawatts (GW) of requests for new cryptocurrency mining capacity, for which 9 GW of planning studies have been approved, according to NERC.
41 Giga watts requested for crypto mining…JFC that’s alot of power.
Eta: some light internetting tells me Texas has something in the range of 150 Giga watts of generating capacity. Let’s just tack 41 more on top for crypto…Ugh my head