Alternative Energy: Power Via Coastal Wave Motion. 368
lavalamp writes "Scottish company Ocean Power Delivery has developed a sectional-torpedo-looking-thing as a means to transform the raw fury of the sea into electricity! I'm curious to see what happens when another drunk Exxon captain plows into a field of these things. They just secured a 8.6m (usd) in funding to continue research and build a large scale prototype." The company has won a contract to produce a 750kw "plant" off of the scottish coast and has an mou to produce a 2Mw project off of the coast of Vancouver Island in Canada. While this is far from being free energy, it is a pretty interesting way of deriving power from the tides. A side benefit is that surfers will finally be able to rail like their boarding cousins.
Effects of this technology (Score:2, Insightful)
This is actually quite old (Score:3, Insightful)
I vividly remember a picture of a wave with a bunch of strange yellow things in it. The things were wave braker like devices that used the power of the waves to generate electricity.
"When I was a kid" is somewhere around the mid eighties here, I guess.
If everything I learned from books then is going to be re-invented this century I think we still have a LONG list ahead of us. Let's hope they pass up on some of the more stupid ones, like Windows 3.0.
I wonder (Score:2, Insightful)
You just can't take energy out of a system without a side-effect.
Of course, it will only be an issue if it is ever scaled up.
Woo hoo! (Score:2, Insightful)
I firmly believe that we're all getting ripped off by the energy companies out here, and that the crisis would be solved if the idiot power companies would shape up. However, this doesn't seem to be happening, so perhaps this might bring some new companies to the table, and possible spark a little competition out here? Perhaps at least give us more options so we can quit being raped by our electric bills. Even with cutting back, I'm paying a lot.
Besides, to cut back anymore would require powering down my servers. That's just not gonna happen.
Excellent News (Score:4, Insightful)
Though this design is nothing new (I remember a theoretical drawing in a high school textbook), it's excellent to hear that some medium scale implementations are going though.
I can't help but think how this compares to the US energy policy, which basically boils down to "clean coal" and scrapping regulations that would mandade fuel efficency and pollution reductions. As troubling as this is from an environmental perspective, what's more troubling is the lack of desire within the leadership of this nation to actively invest in and pursue technology.
We as a nation seem to be more than willing to let our technological advantages slip away in our moment of decadence.
Iceland is buiding fuel-cell technology into their public buses and merchant/fishing fleet. Scotland is making power from the waves. East Germany has an all-fiber telecom network, and we have... "clean coal" and SUVs that get less than 18mpg.
Hmmmm... I don't like where this is going in the long run. The US government has the biggest bankroll of any nation. We should be putting it to better use if you ask me.
Re:Talk about a place to put a bomb.... (Score:2, Insightful)
and any 'terrorist' wouldn't really get that much bang out of it-- stuff doesn't blow up that easily when it's in the water.
How long will EVERY conversation we have about ANYTHING require the obligatory security/terrorist wanring/advocation?
Marine life (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Excellent News (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not to hip on coal either. But my point is that it's always better to pursue the cheapest energy. If we can incorporate the 'pollution' costs into the cost of that energy, then these alternatives start to look sexy.
Re:Slowing down the earth/moon (Score:4, Insightful)
Think of this energy like using the steam coming off a kettle to drive a kid's toy windmill - you won't affect the rate at which the kettle boils (but you will change where the kinetic energy from the steam is turned into heat)
Fixed and marginal costs (Score:4, Insightful)
So while I'm happy to see a range of things working out as possibly viable, 750kW is not alot to get out of the resources that appear to be going into this.
Re:Woo hoo! (Score:2, Insightful)
Despite these logical facts about nuclear, don't expect public opinion to change any time soon. The fact is, when stuff goes wrong with nuclear power, it freaks out an entire generation who won't go near the stuff. And also, don't lump all environmentalists together; I happen to be one (a wilderness activist, to be specific), but I'm certainly aware of the advantages that nuclear offers.
Re:I wonder (Score:2, Insightful)
True, but we are taking the energy out before it hits land. This will decrease natural erosion, deacrease the amount of carbon absorbed by the ocean (it is a natural carbon sink) and possibly affect sea life in that region. Granted that the energy taken from the tide would be relatively small compared to the total kinetic energy of the waves. Nevertheless, over time it would be difficult to tell exactly what the impact would be.
Re:Excellent News (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Surfing (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll give you a hint---it's freezing!
Sure, there are a few hardy souls who don their drysuits and hoods, I'm not meaning to discredit them!
The view? Fish can't swim around it? An undersea structure like this will likely provide habitat for so many other creatures.
Some study needs to be done--I agree! But to write the idea off as crazy is not appropriate. I'd settle for less view, a few disgruntled surfers, fish that are on drugs, if it meant that Vancouver Island could have some energy independence from the mainland.
Currently we do not produce enough power on the island for our needs and we import it from the Mainland and Washington State. Soon they are talking about building a natural gas pipeline.
Now what do you think about it?
Re:Slowing down the earth/moon (Score:2, Insightful)
Even if it is not enough energy there will still be an effect (just not detectable by our instruments)
That would make it a theoretical effect, right? I.e., if we can't observe it, even indirectly, then it may or may not actually exist. Thus, this idea is more philosophical than scientific.
Anyway, I still object to the idea that any energy is "lost" or "removed from the system." The energy is transformed and relocated, but it's not "lost." Perhaps this energy will be relocated to people's Pentium laptops, thus increasing global warming, thus keeping the Earth's core and mantel from cooling as quickly, thus allowing the core and mantel to continue to be affected by tidal forces, thus keeping the energy entirely "within" the "system" and allowing the moon to stay in its comfortable orbit.
Problem solved! And I never realized how Intel might be saving the planet from annihilation. Wow.
Re:Excellent News (Score:4, Insightful)
The only actor with the ability to put these costs back on balance sheets where they belong is the TV personality every American loves to hate - the government. But in the US we've come to think it's our right to have a society without taxes or rules, so we steadfastly resist this. I really think in this case, we need to look at stricter environmental laws as common sense economics - the public looking out for itself.