I had recently expressed a concern about harness the power of the ocean currents, the gulf stream/global conveyor, etc.  These currents are key to weather patterns around the world, so reducing their free flow could bring significant change to the climate, either in regions or throughout the world.  My concerns are simply, that in our rush to reduce CO2 to reduce global warming, that we don’t cause other global environmental problems.  I feel that wave power, that is generated on the ocean surface or on shore, seem to have lower potential for these negative effects.

In particular, generating electricity from waves coming ashore, seems unlikely to cause an major enviromental issue.  The method that i am referring to is known as a Limpet system, first launched on Islay, in Scotland, UK, in early 2001.  The Limpet (Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer) system uses an Oscillating Water Coumn to force and draw air through a bi-directional turbine, known as a Wells turbine.  The major difference between this technology and all other wave or current generating technologies, is that this is done along the shoreline.  The water is channelled to create positive and negative air pressure for moving the turbine.  The water is returned to the ocean as the wade recedes and creates a vacuum pulling the water out of the Limpet.  This seems to have the lowest potential for envorinmental damage, since wave engery is already being dissipated along the beach, rocks/etc.

The people who built the Islay plant is Wavegen of the UK.  Check out the Wavegen Site for more about wave energy capture.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Wave & Current Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.