WaveRoller Uses Swinging Door for Underwater Wave Energy
The simplest ideas are best at harnessing underwater wave energy. You don’t want lots of parts in the harsh marine environment (for machine parts) under the ocean. Here’s an idea from a diver from Finland who was almost hit in the head by a shipwreck door that inspired this invention: the WaveRoller.
Now the EU is funding the diver; Rauno Koivusaari, with $4.4 million for his company AW-Energy to build the first full scale demo of his invention.
Each one at full size weighs 20 tons and produces 300 KW.
Each 20 ton WaveRoller “door” can be connected together in threes to make up a nearly 1 MW unit. Obviously you can make a modular farm of any size under the ocean of these three-packed units, so the output can be as much as you can build tons-worth of “doors”.
Koivusaari’s company AW-Energy has been perfecting the device for the last fifteen years. His half scale demos have gone well. This year we will get the results of a full scale demo built off the coast of Portugal, thanks to the EU funding.
AW-Energy’s WaveRoller uses the roiling currents under the sea to make energy from the repetitive surge motion at the sea floor in what Koivusaari calls the surge zone. The kinetic energy produced is collected by a piston pump. This energy can be converted to electricity by a closed hydraulic system in combination with a hydraulic motor/generator system.
It would be positioned on the sea-floor 21 feet to 75 feet below sea level so ships won’t interfere with it. Since it is out of sight; it is a Nimby-proof source of renewable energy.
Images: AW-Energy
Source: Blue Living Ideas
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November 2nd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Definitely a good idea to absorb waves energy, but, will this gadget become another sea junks in the future? This is still another question remain.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Excellent news Susan, thank you!
I know what you mean Edward and I never thought about it until you mentioned it. However, there’s plenty of man made junk down there (ships, mainly!)which acts as artificial reefs for masses of sealife.
If there is no removal plan for all of these wave-powered projects, let’s hope they can find a use beyond life in this way.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:33 am
That idea might also be inspired by another almost similar wave energy device, the Oyster from Aquamarine
November 7th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Good idea.I hope it works out but i’m reminded of a device tested off of Scotland a few years ago.It was called “OSPREY II”(this was a working model) i think and it encountered a so called “once in a 100 years storm”.Even though it was made of 3 to 4 inch thick steel(this is a guess as i cant quite remember the correct thickness)it was twisted into scrap metal by the power of the sea.If i was the person responsible for building this thing ,then i would take a tip from the Victorian engineers and massively overengineer the thing.e.g. i live in Scotland,not far from the Forth Rail Bridge.The rail bridge has stood for over a century and will probably last at least another century(fine solid engineering work),while the Forth Road Bridge is needing replaced after less than 50 years(designed by theorists with no experience of life outside the university cloisters).
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Great idea for all, save for the those practicing “American Dream” lifestyles! The only answer for them: the balance of the worlds oil in their SUV’s tanks and jobs that pay enough to afford humongous McMansions’ mortgages – but guess what! It ain’t gonna happen! America is broke and unemployable and will now seek “Survival Mode” lifestyles – just like the rest of us, and there will be plenty power for all from very clean methods like this! Just gotta get Yankee Doodle to get real, pull his horns in, get down to earth, and see life like it really is, not through the advertising propagandists eyes! Even Obama is going to sing this song, and soon! Joblessness now a way of life in a dying America, Unemployables roaming the streets! Tidal power better developed than ever before, now, how to get folks into well insulated well planned “Survival Shelter” style housing before the next natural cyclic dip in the economy and perhaps the great depression hiding in its troughs! Plant gardens, not lawns, potatoes not daisies, the urban unemployables are going to need food to avoid mass starvation – we may have to send food to China to prevent horrors of starvation there! The great American machine grinds down to a halt as we speak, the dollar slamming through the cellars of Hell at crash velocities! To pay for Tidal power developments we must have capital and cheap, willing, and capable labor who will settle for a lesser lifestyle and work hard anyway, to build them! America is still rich in some resources, starved of others, expect change before Tidal Power is considered usable at all – lifestyle change! Change to a “sustainable” lifestyle! Is America ready for all that?