We’ve been hearing a lot lately about alternative energies — particularly biofuels of questionable value like ethanol — but in December a really neat pilot project seems to have passed, for the most part, under the radar.
Pacific Gas & Electric, a major player in California’s energy industry, is backing a Canadian-made power plant prototype that will harness the power of the waves to generate enough electricity for 640 homes — apparently a world first. If all goes well, the project will go 50 times bigger.
From CNet:
Finavera makes a device called the Aquabuoy, a buoy connected to a long underwater piston. As the buoy bobs up and down on the waves, it pushes the piston, which pressurizes a chamber filled with seawater. The pressure cranks a turbine and electricity is made.
[…] Several companies and university laboratories are experimenting with ways to harness tides and waves to produce power. Some small-wave and tidal-power devices exist, but mostly it’s an industry in the experimental phase. Unlike wind or sunlight, waves and tides are fairly predictable, a major plus for utilities looking for stable green sources of power.
Sea water is also more than 800 times denser than air at sea level, which means wave farms or tidal turbines can produce quite a bit of power with only a little equipment and real estate.
Ten years from now, the U.S. could produce 10 gigawatts of wave power and 3 gigawatts of tidal power, said Roger Bedard, ocean energy program leader for the Electric Power Research Institute and an admitted optimist on the subject. That’s enough for 4.3 million homes (assuming 3 kilowatts a home).
Admittedly, Finavera’s first attempt sank, and now sits somewhere at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Oregon. But the science is there, and 4.3 million homes is about 1.5 times the size of New York City. Bedard says the U.S. can inexpensively “harvest” enough wave power to cover six per cent of its electricity needs. Even at this impressive scale, wave power isn’t going to make much of a dent in our carbon footprints, but combined with similar initiatives in solar, tidal and wind power, the overall effect could be a big-time reduction in emissions.
Image from www.finavera.com.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment