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Ocean Energy Tech To Be Tested Off Australian Coast
cylonlover writes "The researchers at Australia's BioPower Systems evidently looked at kelp, and thought, 'what if we could use that swaying action to generate power?' The result was their envisioned bioWAVE system: 'At the base of each bioWAVE system would be a triangular foundation, keeping it anchored to the sea floor. Extending up from the middle of that foundation would be a central column, topped with multiple blades — these would actually be more like a combination of the kelp's blades and floats, as they would be cylindrical, buoyant structures that just reach to the surface. The column would join the foundation via a hinged pivot, allowing it to bend or swivel in any direction. Wave action (both at the surface and below) would catch the blades and push them back and forth, in turn causing the column to move back and forth relative to the foundation. This movement would pressurize fluid within an integrated hydraulic power conversion module, known as an O-Drive. The movement of that fluid would spin a generator, converting the kinetic energy of the waves into electricity, which would then be delivered to shore via subsea cables.'"
In other news a new alternative energy project provides free fish blending service for Austrailian sharks.
You know, I think it would be fair to say that until motorboats are banned these shouldn't be either.
Someone had to do it.
That's what geothermal energy is for.
Ideally, you would combine gravity + oceans + geothermal:
* Siphon water off the ocean
* It falls down a long tunnel, turning a fan
* It heats up, goes up another shaft turning fan #2
* Redirect the vapor back into shaft 1
With wave & geothermal, we [would] all the energy we need.
I did a bit of work at a pump storage mini-hydro plant once (only two little 250MW generators) which is used to supply power at peak times so operates at about the same time each day. Lined up at the netting designed to keep idiots from driving their skiboats up to the outlets were a lot of very large turtles and a cormorant on nearly every float - just waiting. Each day a lot of very confused fish get dumped at that spot.
The turbines in that case wouldn't mince the fish - the blades are fairly blunt, run at relatively low revolutions and are so far apart that I entered the tunnel behind a turbine by climbing through a gap between two blades. Of course it was all shut down for the week with the pipework exiting the turbine removed.
You see it is THIS, this right here, that is the cancer ruining Slashdot.
Once upon a time we had really good racist trolls, they were so subtle you wouldn't even catch the troll until the second paragraph. Like a good shit eater troll they would string you along, making you think it was a completely different post then WHAM, right in the balls.
Our OS fanbois brought true entertainment value to this site, like how Twitter could take a story about shoes and twist it into a truly Machiavellian tale of power and betrayal that always led to a secret bunker in Redmond where Gates and the Illuminati planned the destruction of everything with GNU in it. Our shills so damned good that they could make you root for Union Carbide and even those against them believed they were real.
Now like a TV series that has stay on long past the writers ability to think up new stories here lies the formerly great Slashdot. Once a great land where geeks fought epic battles about shit the common man couldn't even spell and where trolls pushed the limits simply to prove that they were the greatest in their fields. Now, sadly, it lies barren, where the best trolls can do is say the word nigger like a 3 year old saying dookie, the fanbois only call each other shill all day, and the geeks and their epic battles? The battlefield lies empty, their battles but fading echoes of a once great past. Truly a sad day my friends, truly a sad day.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.