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Underwater Power Generation?

Posted by Cliff on from the natural-dynamos-under-the-sea dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "We keep seeing stories here about tidal power, and that's cool, but I don't see how it can be done without a column rising all the way to the surface. So here are the ideas I've got right now." Read on for some interesting thoughts on the subject...

"Keep in mind that the device will probably be housed in a length of 4-inch PVC or ABS pipe, and it needs about 0.5 ma at 1.5 volts:

  • Surge power. Put a couple of funnels back-to-back with a CPU cooling fan-sized turbine and generator in the middle, and run the output through a rectifier and capacitor. But how reliable will those moving parts be after years underwater?
  • Self-winding watch concept. Float the thing tethered to the bottom and install some sort of pendulum inside with a magnet on it, moving through a coil. The moving parts are protected, but will it be enough power?
  • Yank the chain. Again, tether it, but use the varying tension on the tether to drive a dynamo of some sort. Not sure how this would work.
  • Magnetohydrodynamic generator. Like the surge power thing, but using the flow of cunductive seawater through a magnetic field to generate a current. I have no idea how much power this would generate, if any, or how to deal with ion accumulation at the electrodes.
  • Nukes. Anyone got a spare radioisotope thermoelectric generator? Any idea how many smoke detectors I'd need to cannibalize to get enough Americium-241?
The generator need not fit inside the 4-inch cache tube, but it shouldn't be huge, either. It needs to be practical to build, and not terribly expensive. Above all it's got to be reliable and enduring. Any ideas?"

8 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. First Post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What's up with this bitching about being logged in. I'm logged in, I just take the time to check an extra box. ACs rock!

    1. Re:First Post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Go fuck yourself, how about that?

  2. What's up with this post? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Is it just me? No description is listed on the ask.slashdot.org page, and the submitter's name doesn't show on this page. Did the submitter say his name was the HTML break tag or something?

  3. Best Article summary EVER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Ask Slashdot: Underwater Power Generation?
    SciencePosted by Cliff on Tue April 02, 09:47 PM
    from the natural-dynamos-under-the-sea dept.

    ( Read More... | 1763 bytes in body | 0 of 5 comments | Ask Slashdot )


    This is fucking AWESOME!
    1. Re:Best Article summary EVER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Kinda funny isn't it... Somebody fucked up bad!

    2. Re:Best Article summary EVER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      They want the click-throughs to article.pl - double the ad-impressions (non-subscribers) or page hits (non-subscribers).

      Taco said in the IRC that not many people read the comments.

  4. Wow! by sigwinch · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The blurb on the front page didn't have a single misspelling!

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    Kuro5hin.org: where the good times never end. ;-)

  5. Great Writeup! by jordanb · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Wonderful to finally see Slashdot authors manage to put up a story with no spelling or grammar errors on the front page!

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    Jordan Bettis