Harnessing Slow Water Currents For Renewable Energy

Julie188 writes "Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer, Michael Bernitsas, has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power. This is is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2.3 miles per hour). Most of the Earth's currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently. Further details and a few brief movies of the technology are available, as well as a video explanation by Professor Bernitsas himself."

Comments

Re:Secondary effects?

[canthusus]

IANAFM also, but yes, I'd expect to see slower water, as we have extracted energy from it. With care, this need not be a bad thing - for example, groins have been constructed on parts of the Thames to slow the water near the banks, encouraging scour of the main shipping channel. Erect a vortex generator instead of groins and you can control flow and generate electricity. Downside is it may become too successful, and the silting could interfere with operation.

Oceans, Not Rivers

[Doc Ruby]

This device targets ocean currents, not rivers. Ocean currents already have too much energy (by historical comparison), accumulated in twistier undersea currents from the decades and centuries of escalating Greenhouse effects.

River current power is what is captured by hydroelectric dams. Which have their own problems, but we're already stuck with them. More ocean hydroelectric could allow us to release some dams that have too high a cost (environmentally or operationally) to justify their power output. Though application of these generators in rivers might just be a low-impact replacement for dams. However, the dams also deliver irrigation and drinking water, so we're probably stuck with them for the long haul.

Re:That acronym is so 1980's...

[owlnation]

These days, acronyms should Google well. Google for VIVACE, MUSIC, or ESPRIT and you'll get page after page of irrelevant sites. Scientists should try to name their projects with unique names, names that will let interested people search the web and *find* their projects.

No. No. No. Scientists, and anyone, should name things what they want, and Google should make a considerably higher effort to make search work MUCH better than it currently does. This just shows you how bad search is, and far it has to go. Google needs more competition.

Re:Secondary effects?

[maxume]

"A damming effect" would never be a problem, the slower the water is moving the less energy available for extraction, so you would stop installing them long before the water stopped moving. I would guess that capital return rates would convince investors to stop installing them long before environmental impact became a significant problem.