Turning ocean waves into electricity

[Hum]

There's another potential power source that's so plentiful that it covers 71% of the Earth, but it's been a struggle to tap.

Startup Columbia Power is the latest company to dream of harnessing the ocean for electricity. It's building a wave generator called StingRAY that will float on the ocean's surface, turning each passing wave to usable power.

 

Ocean power isn't a new idea, but it's struggled to find a cost-effective approach. Wave generators can't be dropped in just anywhere. They have to account for things like existing shipping lanes and marine life.

 

The tidal power industry, which relies on the tide to turn giant underwater turbines, is much more established but still far from mainstream. Wave power is a similar but younger technology facing its own unique sets of challenges.

 

Columbia Power is tackling wave power with a system similar to a wind turbine. It's held in place by a mooring attaching it to the sea floor. Each passing wave turns floats inside a central compartment, powering a magnetic generator. A large underwater cable connects a farm of turbines to a power grid.

 

The most recent version of the StingRAY weighs 700 tons and is 20 meters high. The bulk of it is hidden below the water's surface so all that's visible from above is 2.5 meters of bright yellow machinery. At night, navigation lights warn passing boats to their location.

 

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[Unobscured Vision]

Hum! Welcome back, bud.  

[Mando]

this technology was all the rage in Scotland until recently, it makes total sense to a landmass with such a huge coastline as Scotland (and the UK in general) has, so sad to see ventures fail due to funding being pulled on kinetic wave technology in favour for wind farms etc 

[MikeChipshop Member]

31 minutes ago, Mando said:

this technology was all the rage in Scotland until recently, it makes total sense to a landmass with such a huge coastline as Scotland (and the UK in general) has, so sad to see ventures fail due to funding being pulled on kinetic wave technology in favour for wind farms etc 

In fact it was pioneered not far from where you are now.

[BinaryData]

I kind of feel the same way about dams. The U.S. Government classifies them as "Non-Renewable Energy", which I find incredibly stupid. And do you know the reason why? Because it damages the fish population, even though we spend millions of dollars on fish pathways. I live between two dams, I pay 3 cents per K/w of power. Top 10 Cheapest power in the states. We sell a bulk amount of power to other states.

 

I'd love to see this technology take off, though it would be an eyesore in some places, like Hawaii. The tidal turbines make more sense there, however the idea of placing them bothers me. So many things could go wrong and decimate the population of organics in the area. I'd be ###### if we killed that, I want to go scuba diving there! I'm just too fat, I can't maintain my buoyancy without lots of weights

[PGHammer]

The eyesore problem is, in fact, the biggest issue with tidal, wind, even geothermal (which could fit right in anywhere that volcanoes exist; thus it could even work in Hawaii).  If you wanted to kill multiple "birds" with one stone, you could use treated wastewater ("grey water") for heat exchange (not a new idea; it's used already for continuous-cycle generating plants today, such as Panda Brandywine/Cedarville, less than thirty-minutes from my house).