The Heavyweight Sea Snail

Roland Piquepaille writes "Scotland, like many European countries, must comply with regulations requiring that a mandatory percentage of the energy it uses comes from renewable sources. For Scotland, this percentage will be 18% in 2010 and 40% by 2020. One of the programs in development is Ian Bryden's sea 'Snail' program. The Snail is a 30-ton anchoring device which uses hydrofoils -- wings that 'fly' in the water -- to generate enough power from tidal waves to service 10,000 homes by 2007. This overview contains more details and a picture of a prototype of the Snail with its six wings." There are several mentions of this in UK newspapers and the Scottish government webpages.

Comments

Whew. . .

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

I never tried escargot, and probably never will, but I saw snail, 30 ton and almost lost my lunch.

They must be stopped!

[machine of god]

This is all part of an alien conspiracy to bring the moon crashing down on us! Awaken to the truth before it's too late!

Is this really renewable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't this just steal energy from the moon? Leading to disastrous complications if our insatiable moon power lust is not quelled.

Re:Is this really renewable?

[Rebar]

You raise a good point. Stealing rotational energy from the earth isn't exactly tapping into a renewable source of energy, unless we set up giant arrays of solar-powered gyroscopes to add back to the rotational energy of the earth.

You read it here first, friends - a new way to transmit power halfway around the world without power lines! Giant solar powered gyroscopes in the desert adding to the Earth's rotation, and humongous sea-snails in Scottland removing it!

Tidal Waves!?

[frobnoid]

Its powered by Tidal waves?
Really, how often do they have Tsunami there?

Re:Tidal Waves!?

[Adriax]

Gozirra VS. Mecha Tidalwave Powered Sea Snail! Now even the scotts are trying to destroy tokyo, yeesh...

A new internet law

[panurge]

Panurge's Law:

No energy technology supported by a UK government and reported on the internet will ever produce more power than was consumed in publicising it.

Corollary: No energy technology will be supported by a US government unless it can (a)power an SUV and (b) create explosions.

Re:Power supplies

[bennomatic]

It's really nice when this sort of thing happens, isn't it? I mean, if they've got strong winds, why not use them? If they've got strong tides, why not use them?

Now if they could only capture all those lemmings and hook them up to little hamster wheel generators around the time they start running toward the sea, they'd have an energy surplus they could sell off cheap!

Re:Power supplies

[Anonymous Coward]

That's OK, 23% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Re:You got it backward.

[Adriax]

So it's a secret alien plot to change the length of the day, so we all suffer from constant jet lag?

Re:Why?

[SlayerofGods]

One big reason is the USA is huge compared to most countries. And these alternative power sources normally cost a lot more in setup cost then your average power plant. So it would cost us a lot more to go around building these things everywhere.
Another big reason starts with G ends with H. and has eorge W. Bus in the middle.

One Drawback

[Anonymous Coward]

So, when the tide changes, and this device reverses its direction, do you have unplug all of your appliances and flip the plug over to accomodate for the reversed current?