Electricity from wave power

[Barbatos]

Hi I m new here, the little sign at the top was asking me to make a post so here it is.

I don't know if it is anything new but I found this article today,

http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fsb/nextlittlething/4.html

And I was wondering is this something people should get exited about or is it just cool looking but more or less not that usefull like wind power.

There was also this on the same site http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fsb/nextlittlething/10.html

Witch got me wondering could the ocean power our planet? It seems like a decent solution to a growing problem.

[Swift]

Hi Barbatos, welcome to BAUT.
I'm no expert, but I suspect that wave power will be better than useless, but not a magic solution to all of our energy problems. I suspect in certain, select locations it could be very useful. My impression also is that wind power is about the same - I would not say that it not useful. Again, in certain locations, you can generate a lot of power that way. According to this website (http://www.energy.ca.gov/wind/overview.html), California generates 1.5% of its power with wind power. I know Ohio is looking into it.

My feeling is that there will not be one big solution to our energy issues, but many small ones that fit together.

[sarongsong]

...not that usefull like wind power...could the ocean power our planet?...Wind power not that useful? The Netherlands and California might disagree on that....researchers at Oregon State University say that only 0.2 percent of the ocean's untapped wave energy could power the entire world...(1st reference above)Apparently so.

[Barbatos]

Apparently so.

Well I noticed that the ocean has that much untaped power but what I was wondering is will we be able to tap it. for example in the planets core there is so much electricity produced that it could power more than one earth, same goes for the sky. But this we might actualy be able to use.


O and I was mistaken about wind power I checked an in other countrys it is worth it, I was just using my own country as a referense, here aperently we don't get the right kind of wind so all the wind farms that are set up are more or less useles.

[Maksutov]

Harnessing tidal power is an old story in The State of Maine. The Passamaquoddy proposals go back to the days of FDR. Here's a brief history (http://environmentalet.org/env1100/explorations/quoddytidal.htm).

With increased energy costs, the project is once again being considered (http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/downeast.aspx?articleid=136211&zoneid=177).

[Swift]

And as Mak said, cost is everything. When oil was $30 per barrel, it is just not worth the return-on-investment to develop and install alternative energy technologies. When oil is $70 per barrel, the economics are different - suddenly, a lot of technologies that were not economically viable are.

[MAPNUT]

Just off the top of my head, without doing any reading lately, I'd say that wave energy is not sufficiently concentrated to be an energy panacea. You hear about pilot projects here and there, but although the technology is available, the energy available in the small segment of a wave that the structure will intercept, is just not enough to pay for the structure. Keep in mind that anything installed in the ocean has to resist salt water and massive storms.

As stated in the first link above, "By the year 2010 Taylor plans to have a 100-ton, 37-foot-wide buoy that could generate 500 kilowatts. An array of 40 buoys that size, linked together, could generate electricity at prices significantly less than that of a typical coal-burning power station . . " But it would take 1,000 of those buoys to replace an average-size coal plant. They won't be cheap, although they could be very environmentally benign.

Tidal power is essentially low-head hydropower. Again massive structures are required to direct the water into the turbines. Tidal plants are only likely to be economical at channel constrictions where the structures are minimized. And they will cause major environmental disruptions. Be suspicious of any scheme where the proponent talks about just placing a device in a fast-moving current. If that was possible you wouldn't need dams to have hydroelectric plants. You have to force the water through the turbine, which requires a barrier, and requires head - a change in water level. If you just stick a turbine in a current, the water will go around it rather than turn it.

Someone once came to my company with a proposal for a tidal plant in the Philippines that would take advantage of a 10-meter difference in sea level from one side of a large island to the other. We were skeptical of the existence of such a difference in water level - they never proved it to us - but what killed our interest was a back-of-an-envelope calculation of the cost of building the 40-foot diameter power tunnel from one side of the island to the other - $5 billion! So you have to watch out for some of these guys.

I'm not entirely skeptical about alternative energy; wind is a lot more viable than wave or tidal power and I'd like to see more of that. All of the energy that's in waves originally came from wind, and you don't have to go underwater to get it.

[Ronald Brak]

In general, modern wind power is cheaper than nucler power. In general meaning if you build a windpower plant in a place where there is little wind or the grid finds it difficult to deal with intermittent energy, you're not going to get a good return. And of course the cost of supplying nuclear power also varies from country to country and plant to plant.

A typical grid can get maybe up to 20% of it's power from wind before dealing with intermittency becomes too difficult and expensive. My own state is building wind capacity up to 20%.

Some schemes for harnessing constant high altitude winds claim to be able to produce power cheaper than any current commercial source. I don't know if this is true, but it doesn't sound impossible.

As for wave power, I have heard claims from some companies that it can now economically compete with traditional power sources in some areas. I remember reading that up to 5% of world energy could realistically be generated from wave power, although if you really wanted to I suppose you could construct enough wave generators across open ocean to power the whole world. I just imagine the cost would be rather high.