Ocean Buoys to Provide 10% of US Energy Requirements
With so much of our planet covered in the stuff, it is a surprise that water does not receive the attention that renewable technologies like wind and solar do. Nevertheless, with renewable energy being the catchphrase of many countries at the moment, advancements are being made towards a future where our oceans will provide us with electricity.
After two years, an oversized yellow buoy floating five miles off the southern tip of Long Beach Island has definitely proved its technology feasible. With the rise and fall of each wave, pistons slide up and down inside a cylinder within the buoy, generating electricity.
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Though the little buoy doesn’t make much in the way of electricity, it makes enough to power its onboard systems, and the occasional message back home, to its manufacturer, Ocean Power Technologies of Pennington, N.J. Co-founder of OPT George W. Taylor, a 74-year-old engineer, grew up a young surfer in Australia (the best place to be a young surfer) and knew all about the power of the ocean.
Taylor looks at his one buoy as the predecessor for large farms of buoys, all generating electricity across the planet, on coasts with much larger waves than New Jersey. Indeed, ocean energy is “probably the last of the large natural resources not yet investigated for producing electricity in the United States,” according to a report from the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute.
Roger Bedard, the EPR institute’s ocean energy expert, believes that the potential for hydro electricity generation is “significant.” In fact, he believes it could generate up to 10% of America’s power needs, accounting all current inefficiencies and practicalities. Perhaps, in the future, that 10% could grow as power grids change and adapt to handle the sometimes irregular influx of power generated from wind, solar and water.
Europe is already well ahead of the US in terms of ocean technology. Only recently did a wave farm begin operations in Portugal, and plans are popping up all across the UK – including off the western coasts – to make use of the violent North Atlantic.
Image: OPT
More on Wave Technology at the Green Options Network
World’s First Commercial Wave Energy Farm Goes Live
Tidal Power To Be Trialed in Powerful Australian Waters
Carbon Nanotubes Might Be Used in Future Water Filters
France Plans Groundbreaking Tidal Power Experiment
And how much do you have to junk up the ocean to produce that much energy? A lot of alternative energy sources require large arrays of large, ugly, intrusive devices to be strewn across the land or water. Is this really the direction we want to take?
Yeah right… Waves are 2nd order solar energy, even less efficient than wind.
It takes thousands of miles of open see for the wind to produce waves and you can only collect this energy once. With enough buoys, you’ll just kill all the waves
Why the misleading headline? The article doesn’t say it’s going to happen, just that someone believes it COULD work.
“And how much do you have to junk up the ocean to produce that much energy? A lot of alternative energy sources require large arrays of large, ugly, intrusive devices to be strewn across the land or water. Is this really the direction we want to take?”
-You’re right that these can look obtrusive, but I think they’re nicer looking than mountains that have been ripped and blown apart, mined for their coal, and then piled onto valleys and streams.
“It takes thousands of miles of open see for the wind to produce waves and you can only collect this energy once. With enough buoys, you’ll just kill all the waves”
-I doubt any energy company would be allowed to build enough of these to “kill” the waves. Don’t expect to see these right in the lineup at your favorite beach either. And what do you mean “once”? Waves are a renewable source, bro.
-That said, the title of this article is totally misleading.
Yeahhhh, buoyyyy!!!!
This is a proof of concept and a good one at that.
“A lot of alternative energy sources require large arrays of large, ugly, intrusive devices to be strewn across the land or water.”
This is true but the newer tidal technology is neither ugly or intrusive. Excpet maybe to fisherman. The new tidal turbine arrays reside a minimum of 30 ft. below the ocean surface.
“Waves are 2nd order solar energy, even less efficient than wind.”
Im not sure where you pulled this little tidbit from but it is incorrect. Water power has significantly more power than both solar and wind. You should check out Hoover Dam. Take a Dam tour.