Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches .jpg)
AquaBuOY, being built by a company named Finavera, aims to generate electricity from the vertical motion of waves. The buoy, anchored in an array two to three miles offshore, will convert the waves’ motion into pressurized water using large, reinforced-rubber hose pumps. As the buoy goes up the peak of a wave and down into its trough, it forces a piston in the bottom of the buoy to stretch and contract the hose pumps, pushing water through. This drives a turbine that powers a generator producing electricity, which would be shipped to shore through an undersea transmission line. Finavera is a public Canadian company - see –>> for their stock performance.
Interesting approach to the generation of “free” electricity from wave motion. More about Finavera’s CEO Jason Bak is here:
I think these guys might have found a great solution to one problem that’s really highlighted in the media right now: energy consumption.
I found this piece on their site:
”Finavera’s offshore power plants consist of patented wave energy converters that are based on proven, survivable buoy technology. Clusters of these small, modular devices called AquaBuOYs are moored several kilometers offshore where the wave resource is the greatest. The power plants are scalable from hundreds of kilowatts to hundreds of megawatts. Finavera power plants are designed to provide clean, renewable energy for large population centers. The offshore plants are suitable as distributed generation and load balancing at coastal transmission points.
A cluster of AquaBuOYs would have a low silhouette in the water. Located several miles offshore, the power plant arrays would be visible to allow for safe navigation and no more noticeable than a small fleet of fishing boats.”
Now the average american uses 11kW, a few hundreds kWs isn’t really that much, but a few hundreds mW is. It would supply ten thousands of people with energy. Plus this type of energy has several advantages over its competitors.
First of all it doesn’t produce CO2. But OK, that’s the case with a lot of other renewable energy sources. However unlike sun rays(solar power), waves are always there. And solar panels are really expensive compared to fossile energy. However the prices have been dropping each year now since the demand is rising.
Nuclear fusion (melting two Deuteronium atoms into one, releasing huge amounts of energy) might be the next big thing, but it’s taking too much time, money and effort. In 1960 scientists predicted we would have rendable nuclear fusion by 1970, 37 years later nuclear fusion plants cost billions of dollars and the amount of energy needed to get to the needed temperature is just a bit less then the amount of energy produced. With other words right now billions of dollars are producing enough energy for a village. But hey perhaps the new fusion plant in France might give the breakthroughs needed. But that plant is still being built and meanwhile the hole in the ozone layer and the energy consumption of the world are just getting bigger and bigger.
Wind power is a good renewable energy source, a bit downsides: very loud, they take up a lot of space and not that reliable since wind isn’t always there. AquaBuoy: located several miles offshore(so even if the buoys are loud, no one can hear them), they’re located in the open sea, so they might take up a lot of space but there’s a LOT of space on the sea and there are always waves. But still the fact that this company is also doing wind projects leaves me a good impression about them.
So my conclusion: There are several renewable energy sources out there with great potential, but right now the progress of making them cheap and convenient enough is slow. And so any new renewable energy source is a great addition for me. If quality won’t do it, then let quantity do it.
Nice to see some research being done in the wave energy sector. As for fusion…I didn’t know that it would be way too expensive. And awesome research there Janam!
This idea sounds great. The energy is essentially free and it doesn’t produce any waste. I understand that this is a great alternative to other energy producers, but what happens when there are small waves for a certain period of time. An event like that would put energy in the same situation as wind power. I think they are also going to run into creating a device that can withstand serious storms.
Great idea but there are some what ifs. As Taylor said “what happens when there are small waves”. However this idea could be practical if it were used just for a small city instead of a country. Reason being is if something does go wrong with the buoy, it wouldnt disrupt a major industrial area. Also it might be cheaper to maintain if it was used to distribute power to a city with a population of a few hundred thousand rather than millions.
I’m guessing they’ll put devices where waves are big enough and where there aren’t a lot of big storms.
found this on their site:
The Figueira da Foz(Portugal) offshore pilot power plant consists of AquaBuOYs, patented wave energy converters that are moored in clusters several miles offshore where wave resources are greatest.
And I’ve never heard of serious storms near Portugal, so I guess they’ve got all that covered.
I agree with Janam about these advantages. Just from living in an area that needs power badly, but doesn’t have the space for the plants. In Boston, we have tried everything from wind and solar energy, but coal plants are still working. These coal plants kill the property value of the area as well as pollute like crazy. The wind generators are built on some of the sounds, but that land is reserved to the rich. Finally, the sun is not very strong in Boston and land is at a premium so solar doesn’t work. As long as these don’t bother the fishermen, this is perfect for Boston and other coastal cities
This idea sounds as though its a great one. I mean what else could be easier in helping the environment. There’s no harmful put off that will break down the ozone layer in which many people are worried about today for the common fact that it will eventually allow harmful effects of UV light into the atomosphere. The only thing is that this would only slove the energy deal if you’re close to the ocan or a body of water that creates big enough waves to supply the power, so until they figure out how to transport the energy over long distances i won’t be that effective
I think it’s a great idea also. It’s free energy that’s been available but untapped as long
as Earth has been around. As for the problem of “What if there’s a period of small waves?”, I
may be off base but I don’t think this is meant to make up the whole of energy production.
I think this could be a great, cheap, and non-destructive supplemental energy source.