Floating Marine Solar-Wave Power System Generates Electricity from the Sun and Waves

November 1st, 2011 by Andrew

Photo courtesy of Phil Pauley, PAULEY

London-based designer Phil Pauley has devised a unique, innovative way of harnessing the energy of the sun and ocean waves. His scalable hybrid marine solar PV cell – wave power (MSC) system generates electricity from wave motion as well as direct and refracted sunlight.

Founder of “design and innovation agency PAULEY,” Pauley developed the solar-wave plant in response to “the global need for large-scale renewable energy capture. It has huge implications for offshore energy generation and local marine conservation,” he states on his website.

Pauley’s marine solar cells are relatively cheap to manufacture and deploy, and they generate as much as 20% more electricity the same solar cells installed on land by capturing and converting sunlight reflected from the ocean surface. Wave motion is converted into electricity through natural buoyancy displacement.

In Pauley’s system design, interconnected rings of hundreds of the hybrid solar-wave power units float on the ocean surface and are tethered to mid-water or ocean floor mooring where they can function as off-shore energy batteries or power plants.

Pauley says the MSCs can be manufactured cheaply from recycled materials. They can be placed most anywhere offshore. Installing and maintaining these marine solar-wave arrays or farms would also generate good ‘green’ jobs, he adds.

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Tags: energy innovation, marine conservation, marine energy, marine power, marine solar cells, ocean energy, PAULEY, phil pauley, recycled materials

About the Author

Andrew I've been reporting and writing on a wide range of topics at the nexus of economics, technology, ecology/environment and society for some five years now. Whether in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Americas, Africa or the Middle East, issues related to these broad topical areas pose tremendous opportunities, as well as challenges, and define the quality of our lives, as well as our relationship to the natural environment.