Generating Power From Ocean Buoys and Kites

cheezitmike writes "Researchers at Oregon State University are testing a new type of wave-energy converter to generate electricity from ocean waves: 'Even when the ocean seems calm, swells are moving water up and down sufficiently to generate electricity. ... For decades the challenge has been to build a device that can withstand monster waves and gale-force winds, not to mention corrosive saltwater, seaweed, floating debris and curious marine mammals. ... In the most recent prototypes, a thick coil of copper wire is inside the first component, which is anchored to the seafloor. The second component is a magnet attached to a float that moves up and down freely with the waves. As the magnet is heaved by the waves, its magnetic field moves along the stationary coil of copper wire. This motion induces a current in the wire — electricity.'" Meanwhile, researchers at Stanford are working to design "turbine kites" that operate at 30,000 feet, where air currents flow much faster than they do close to the ground. Ken Caldeira, a Stanford associate professor, said, "If you tapped into 1% of the power in high-altitude winds, that would be enough to continuously power all civilization."

Comments

Re:Consequences

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you suggest a source of energy that has no potential downside whatsoever? No? Then, kindly, stop whining.

I swear, this attitude has got to stop. "Oh solution X for problem Y has a (potential) downside, it's clearly unsafe, we should abandon it". Happens every single fucking time power generation comes up on slashdot. Since when did people start thinking like Pierson's Puppeteers?

If a solution to a problem (in this case power generation) offers fewer downsides than the existing solutions (fossil fuels mainly), then please, by all means, implement it. This goes for passive power collection (ground based, sea based or orbital), fusion energy, biomass energy, even fission. Worry about the consequences, but don't let those dangers blind you to the very real danger of staying the course with what we already have.

Stop the Irony

[daath93]

Here in Oregon the greenies have been fighting against the energy buoys for a while. They are concerned that electromagnetic cables on the ocean floor could affect sea life, and that buoys could interfere with whale and fish migration. We've also been tearing down hydroelectric dams because it disturbs the salmon. We got Washington DC jacking up the price of non-enviro friendly electricity on one end and the greenies on the other end kicking the green energy in the balls.

Re:Stop the Irony

[TapeCutter]

Right, lets stop the irony and blame the greenies, lets ignore the fact the dams are 80yrs old, poorly designed and commercial fishermen want them altered/removed to allow salmon to spawn. Seems to me it's simply a failure to invest in modern infrastructure (fish ladders), failure to reinvest seems to be a bad habit power companies have picked up these days.

Good luck with that

[Spy Handler]

"If you tapped into 1% of the power in high-altitude winds, that would be enough to continuously power all civilization."

And if you tapped into 1% of the power in the heat of the earth's core, that would be enough to power all of civilization on Zeti Reticuli, and if you tapped into 1% of the solar output by building a tiny Dyson sphere that would be enough to power all of Known Space. But let's first ask ourselves, is it practical and cost-effective?

Re:Good luck with that

[sumdumass]

But let's first ask ourselves, is it practical and cost-effective?

I'm sure we can cap and trade it into being practical and cost-effective. That's the power of the free market when some people are in charge.

Re:1% is such a small number

[TheRaven64]

Exactly my thought. 1% is a tiny number, until you multiply it by the surface area of the Earth. Let's talk some real numbers instead. Current world power consumption is around 500 Exajoules per year, or about 15 TW on average. About 89 PW of solar energy hits the Earth's surface. This means that you'd need 0.017% of the Earth's surface to be converted to solar power to generate enough power for the entire world[1]. Now let's turn these into real numbers, rather than percentages. The surface area of the world is 510,072,000km^2. For solar, you'd need 85,967.191km^2, or a square around 300km on each side. For wind energy, you'd need 5,100,720km^2, or a square around 2250km on each side. Which of these sounds more feasible?

The figures for solar are using the average power, but it's worth noting that a number of the places with the highest solar energy are not particularly suited to human habitation. The Sahara desert is 9,000,000km^2. Enough solar energy hits less than 1% of the Sahara to power the entire world.

That's not to say wind power is a waste of time. The nice thing about this idea is that it works at night. Without some very efficient storage system or room-temperature superconductors, it's not feasible to power the whole world with solar energy. It's much easier to take things like this seriously, however, without the needless hyperbole.

[1] Note I'm assuming 100% efficiency here. The original article stated 1% of the energy in the wind, not 1% of the extractable energy, meaning that he was also assuming 100% efficiency. Back in the real world, scale all of the areas up by another order of magnitude or so.

Fuck it

[ae1294]

I say we just keep burning old tires to heat our homes and be done with it...

I'm sick of all the bogus reasons people come up with why something isn't going to work when they have no fucking idea what the are talking about.

It's not cost effective - No shit because no one is making 50 million of them yet.
It's going to change the weather - Ahh yeah and so does standing outside on a windy day jackass.
It's going to hurt the sea life - Ahh yeah and so does all the trash we dump in the ocean every day and don't forget about all the dead zones from algae overgrowth caused by fertilizer and raw sewage.

Get some fucking prospective people.. We already are killing the planet.

Step 1 is to learn to kill it sloooower.
Step 2 is improve step on step 1.
Step 3 is to get the fuck out of here.
Step 4 ????
Step 5 Profit FOREVER.