Underwater Aussie wave farm

Can't wait for our tenderpreneurs to get a hold of this! It will take 10 years and cost $2billion each.
 
Luke7777 said:
Won't work here.... someone will go steal the tethers...
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lol, but seriously I like the idea of this technology it produces electricity and fresh water. Both of these resources are needed in South Africa. We have a huge coastline to implement this.
 
Insint said:
lol, but seriously I like the idea of this technology it produces electricity and fresh water. Both of these resources are needed in South Africa. We have a huge coastline to implement this.
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Desalination is nothing new, it just requires lots of energy.

That said, I like this. More so that previous systems which would wreck coastlines.

Only problem I see is that they will have to watch out for ships. All it take is one fishing boat with a net :erm:
 
I know there is a snake like design too - sorta snakes over the waves as they come in.
 
konfab said:
Desalination is nothing new, it just requires lots of energy.

That said, I like this. More so that previous systems which would wreck coastlines.

Only problem I see is that they will have to watch out for ships. All it take is one fishing boat with a net :erm:
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Yeah you are right. Thats probably why the Aussies built their farm at a naval base.
 
Show me prices and reliability... otherwise it's just another students research project. (a student who really needs to focus on either the freshwater angle OR the electricity angle)

Anything in the sea is always hard -- it's salty and full of life which moving metal parts always struggle with.

Also power from waves are a bit like power from Solar-PV, they have daily mininum and maximums -- just ask a surfer; if you want cheap, unreliable power, we already have Solar-PV!?
 
richjdavies said:
Show me prices and reliability... otherwise it's just another students research project. (a student who really needs to focus on either the freshwater angle OR the electricity angle)

Anything in the sea is always hard -- it's salty and full of life which moving metal parts always struggle with.

Also power from waves are a bit like power from Solar-PV, they have daily mininum and maximums -- just ask a surfer; if you want cheap, unreliable power, we already have Solar-PV!?
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If you can use the ocean waves or currents to push/force water up an incline you can generate electricity with the water being sent back down again. Even better if you can get turbines turning by the currents that would give you a constant feed of electricity.

Problems I see though is the sand in the water. The gears and such can be made from materials like Plastic but the sand will cause a lot of problems in relation to maintenance. But there are ways.
 
Pitbull said:
If you can use the ocean waves or currents to push/force water up an incline you can generate electricity with the water being sent back down again. Even better if you can get turbines turning by the currents that would give you a constant feed of electricity.

Problems I see though is the sand in the water. The gears and such can be made from materials like Plastic but the sand will cause a lot of problems in relation to maintenance. But there are ways.
Click to expand...

The problem with using the waves to push water up an incline is there usually significant frictional losses that occur. So if you have to do it, it needs to be massive.

The currents idea I like, the only problem is how to stop fish/seaweed garbage from clogging it. Also if I am correct, the currents to move around quite a bit.
 
The currents thing we have in many places* -- e.g. tidal estuaries provide great sources of hydroelectric power. The advantage of doing it in estuaries (i.e. river mouths at the sea edge) are that is is not salty, and close to land. Hydro electric power is great and awesome, but I suspect at least, anything reasonably viable** has already been developed.

It's not wave power and it's not the things in the article.

FYI - I just read more about this in last weeks economist. I have no idea why it's even being talked about. It's been in dev since 1999, the current version just pumps water (to make fresh water through osmosis), but it's this new version (CET6) that will actually generate any electricity. It will be put further out into the waves.
CET5 - the current could produce power at US$0.30-40/kWh == R4.80/kWh... "could... if deployed at scale"
CET6 might get this down to US$0.20c/kwh == R2.40/kwh?
This is meant to compete with off-grid diesel; not any real power source.
(FYI off-grid diesel is best replaced with hybrid of solar + wind (in the right place) + battery + generator... like these 40,000+ bad-boys -- http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/programmes/green-power-for-mobile/tracker )

*as a born Welshman, the Severn Estuary dam is one of all constantly on-again off-again kind of projects.
** The congo basin remains the hugest possible hydroelectric power project, unfortunately it is in one of the most war torn and politically unstable bits of the world... people are still trying though, after 50+ years of discussion.
 
Pfft, we've been having it. We've been getting electricity from the waves for a while now. Does this ring a bell: Stellenbosch Wave Energy Converter or SWEC

EDIT: Can't find a link, but it was featured on that Shorlines Documentary (or was it 50/50) a few years back. They build it at Houtbay or somewhere close to there. Don't know if it's feeding into the grid yet...
Edit: Link, scroll about half way down
 
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