Underwater Power-Generating Buoys Make Waves
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 06.17.07
While we tend to think of buoys as devices that float on the water and serve primarily as ship markers, over the past few years a number of different countries and business have been attempting to develop models that can harness the power of waves (see here and here for two recent examples). AWS Ocean Energy, a British company, has now brought a twist to the formula by building an underwater buoy that can harness wave energy from 50 meters below the surface.
The buoybu is able to harness wave energy at a distance through the changes in pressure produced by waves increasing and decreasing the water column. This occurs when a wave passes over a buoy at the surface, causing the local water pressure to rise and the upper half of the device to sink. In between waves, the water column decreases, returning the water pressure to its normal level and causing the upper half to go up again. This pressure change is converted into electricity which can be fed into a power grid.
Simon Grey, the Managing Director of the company, said "A town with 55,000 inhabitants would need half a square kilometre of seabed covered with 100 buoys to power it." He believes the buoys could effectively be deployed in the North Atlantic, from Scotland to Portugal, along the US Pacific shoreline, along the coast of Chile or even in South Africa and New Zealand (the Mediterranean's waters are too calm to provide enough wave energy).
AWS Ocean Energy plans on anchoring its first five test buoys to the seabed in a test site off the Scottish coast next year and hopes to see them widely implemented in the UK soon afterwards.
Via ::Power-generating buoys shelter in the deep
See also: ::Wave Hub off Cornwall Recieves Funding, ::Wave Energy For Spain Keeps Moving Forward, ::Bouncing Buoy Wave Generators- 1932 version, ::SEADOG Learns Trick, Pumps Water, ::Wave Power: Spotlight on Ocean Power Delivery Ltd
Yes, but just think of all the dolphins it will kill!
haha, nice looking devices.
Wave/free current vs nuclear
Both wave and free current hydro are much more promising for long term generation of large amounts of power than nuclear.
Mechanical wave/current devices are not difficult to build and install in this age. Let us compare them to nuclear produced power.
Uranium must be mined, the ore transported to factories where it is processed into nuclear fuel, the fuel used in special expensive plants which must guard against radiation leakage and protect against runaway fission, and finally, the spent dangerous left-overs must be safely discarded . Then the plant itself must be dismantled at the end of its life cycle which is a rather expensive process.
Wave/current devices need none of this digging and processing of ore, special plants or disposal procedures yet can easily be designed to produce the same amount of power if grouped into farms.
Although hundreds of new nuclear plants are being planned for the next decade, it would be wise for governments rather to fund ocean alternatives.
adrianakau2aol.com
How to avoid becoming an obstacle to navigation when topping out just above the depth where eddy currents exceed the up and down motion of surface wave induced flows?
Very cool looking stuff.
Adrian Akau I read your comments everywhere and you seem very informed, do you have a blog of your own?
Has anyone seen or read and studies that discuss the total energy potential of coastal power sources. Is this something that could provide 1-2% of sustainable power supplies (particularly in the US), or more like 10-20%?
It would be great if these could be installed in areas where fish are at risk of being overexploited by unregulated fishing. That way the nets couldn't be dragged along the sea floor without snagging the buoys making the area unfishable.
THey said in a news artical if .2% (point 2 percent!!!) of the energy from the ocean was captured it would be enough to power the world!!!!
THey said in a news artical if .2% (point 2 percent!!!) of the energy from the ocean was captured it would be enough to power the world!!!!
Adrianakau2aol.com is wrong about nuclear vs. wave energy.
Nuclear has already proven itself. Wave power is still in the R&D stage.
Nuclear has decades and thousands of safe-operating hours under its belt in the U.S. Wave power is barely off the drawing board.
There is not even 1 method of producing "green" energy that can produce as much power as a typical U.S. nuclear power plant within the same footprint.
Nuclear plants are on their 3rd generation of models. Wave-powered devices are barely on their 1st.
Nuclear does not need additonal mining if we use breeder reactors which use recycled nuclear waste. Between the waste we already have, and the warheads of U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiles, we have enough fuel to power the U.S. for another 1,000 years.
Nuclear plants can be built almost anywhere--even on boats and sumbarines. With wave power everyone would have to live on the coast.
Nuclear produces power 24/7. Wave-powered devices' outputs vary depending on the streng of the waves.
It is impossible for next generation nuclear power plants to go into meltdown because of their inherent safety measures.
A nuclear plant's life cycle is 40-50 years! Wave-powered devices, because of their mechanical nature, would need to be replaced regularly.
Nuclear releases no greenhouse gases--as the environmental movement defines them. We have no idea the kind of impact hundreds of thousands of wave-powered machines would have on ocean life.
Nuclear Power IS Green Power
Rob
NUCLEAR IS NOT GREEN, Rob must own shares in nuclear power plants or uranium mines, wake up Rob, how can nuclear be green when it has enormous waste disposal and security issues. WAKE UP ROB and join the real world of inovative and progressive thinkers who ARE thinking GREEN.