The following is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://SimpleSolutionsBook1.com), with recent updates.
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Wave energy systems are producing, maybe, one megawatt today. Many systems have been tried, and they have mostly failed. Much of the cataclysmic damage can be explained by the fact that water is 859 times denser than air. Wind energy conversion devices have been known to self-destruct. Wave machines are almost a thousand times more apt to do this, for they tend to be built where the waves are the most pronounced.
The United Kingdom estimates that 0.1% of the energy inherent in offshore waves can supply the world’s energy needs five times over, and another study estimates that the power released by waves breaking along the world’s coastline has the equivalent output of three thousand 1,000 MW power plants, where a good site can produce 65 MW/mile. Even though it lost an Osprey prototype in a storm in 1997, the U.K. began to upgrade its program, and the BBC had a series of ongoing programs into 2007, with the 400 kW Oscillating Water Column system in the Azores, spearheaded by the pioneers from the University of Edinburgh, as the most prominent.
Japan (135 kW) and Norway (350 KW) conducted the early demonstrations, and it was reported in the later 1990’s that a 110 kW Mighty Whale concept was still being tested in Australia for the former, while the TAPCHAN reservoir concept of the latter was being installed in Java, with interest shown by Chile, India and Sri Lanka. No further information seems now to be available today, which probably means that nothing much is happening.
Even Hawaii has joined the fray with a $4.3 million 50kW U.S. Navy project operated by Ocean Power Technologies. The project is expected to ultimately spend $12.9 million. Occeanlinx Limited of Australia in May of this year announced that they will provide electricity to Maui Electric Company from a 2.7 MW wave energy conversion system from about 1 kilometer north of the northeast coast of the island. This $20 million effort is expected to become operational by 2009.
Next generation devices include the Pelamis, also called the Ocean Energy Converter, being developed in the United States, which is described as a series of buoys; another American design using a peizo-electric polymer where deformation by the wave can generate electricity; the ConWEC (controlled wave energy converter) of Norway, a wave piston gadget; a national Danish attempt to develop a water analog for its successful air hardware, thus far whittled down to the Waveplane, the Point Absorber System, the Wave Dragon and the Swan; and the Dutch Archimedes Wave Swing, a series of linked mushroom shaped air chambers. If these sound Rube Goldbergish, they are.
My personal assessment of wave power is to wait and see. I am not optimistic.
The United Kingdom estimates that 0.1% of the energy inherent in offshore waves can supply the world’s energy needs five times over, and another study estimates that the power released by waves breaking along the world’s coastline has the equivalent output of three thousand 1,000 MW power plants, where a good site can produce 65 MW/mile. Even though it lost an Osprey prototype in a storm in 1997, the U.K. began to upgrade its program, and the BBC had a series of ongoing programs into 2007, with the 400 kW Oscillating Water Column system in the Azores, spearheaded by the pioneers from the University of Edinburgh, as the most prominent.
Japan (135 kW) and Norway (350 KW) conducted the early demonstrations, and it was reported in the later 1990’s that a 110 kW Mighty Whale concept was still being tested in Australia for the former, while the TAPCHAN reservoir concept of the latter was being installed in Java, with interest shown by Chile, India and Sri Lanka. No further information seems now to be available today, which probably means that nothing much is happening.
Even Hawaii has joined the fray with a $4.3 million 50kW U.S. Navy project operated by Ocean Power Technologies. The project is expected to ultimately spend $12.9 million. Occeanlinx Limited of Australia in May of this year announced that they will provide electricity to Maui Electric Company from a 2.7 MW wave energy conversion system from about 1 kilometer north of the northeast coast of the island. This $20 million effort is expected to become operational by 2009.
Next generation devices include the Pelamis, also called the Ocean Energy Converter, being developed in the United States, which is described as a series of buoys; another American design using a peizo-electric polymer where deformation by the wave can generate electricity; the ConWEC (controlled wave energy converter) of Norway, a wave piston gadget; a national Danish attempt to develop a water analog for its successful air hardware, thus far whittled down to the Waveplane, the Point Absorber System, the Wave Dragon and the Swan; and the Dutch Archimedes Wave Swing, a series of linked mushroom shaped air chambers. If these sound Rube Goldbergish, they are.
My personal assessment of wave power is to wait and see. I am not optimistic.
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Well, oil dropped again today, to $124.42/barrel (or $2.92/gallon), the first time it has dropped below $3/gallon in quite a while. Predictably, the DJI went up 30 points.
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Tropical Storm Cristobal, at 31 MPH, is moving east, away from land, and could soon move east southeast. Dolly hit Southern Padre Island as a Category 2 hurricane, moved inland just north of Brownsville, and is weakening. Considerable rainfall can be expected in the next day or two.
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Tropical Storm Fausto is now at 40 MPH, continues to move west in a path to take it north of Hawaii, and will weaken. Tropical Storm Genevieve is moving west northwest on a path that, if continued, should take it north of Hawaii. Now at 60 MPH, it could well become a hurricane within two days. However, after that, a northern shear should weaken her.
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Eastern Honshu just had an earthquake, of 6.8 magnitude, but a destructive tsunami was not generated.
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