Electricity from Wave Energy may be Economical Feasible Soon

David · Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 17

Quote: Palo Alto, Calif. — February 3, 2005 — A new report from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) suggests that generation of electricity from wave energy may be economically feasible in the near future. The study was carried out by EPRI in collaboration with the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and energy agencies and utilities from six states.

Conceptual designs for 300,000 megawatt-hour (MWh) plants (nominally 120 MW plants operating at 40% capacity factor) were performed for five sites: Waimanalo Beach, Oahu, Hawaii; Old Orchard Beach, Cumberland County, Maine; WellFleet, Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Gardiner, Douglas County, Oregon; and Ocean Beach, San Francisco County, California.

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freckles863 · Joined: 06 Sep 2005 Posts: 3

that has been up and working for 9yrs that harnesses the power of the wave as it hits an iron bar under the ocean

Pandalus · Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 2

I'm new to this forum but whats questionable here and as recently seen in PopSci are the minimal 4 area's focusing on Alternative energy method's: Solar, wind, hydro-electric and geothermal with dashes of hydrogen fuel cells and alternative fuel's themselves. These are good but they are only good as they're location to those natural resources. This is a whole discussion in itself but back to why I'm here: I'm looking at something with tremendous potential and it's a wonder to me why it's not being looked at.

Buoyancy-as in Achemedies Principle.

David · Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 17

Welcome to the forum.
This is not a very active forum, but it will be great if you can post messages sometimes, and hopefully we will grow.
Thanks,
David

Pandalus · Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 2

Site not that active? I noticed that. Makes one wonder where they may be going. Nice looking site, though.

I think it interesting how shelved idea's are now coming around. A timing thing even though some people look to have been ahead of their time. I'm not an engineer-so, I've been looking for a forum to try and spawn some discussion on a principle--that being the energy available in Buoyancy.

As a forced semi retired commercial fisherman I try and keep the old noggen active. Having worked on the water and lived next to a Port for 5 decades at least, AE idea's that come forth envolving water certainly catch my attention. And recently while investigating vessel displacement characteristics, I found an article reminding me of the specific weight of fresh and salt water.

We've large barges and floating docks, these are retangular and the draft is easily seen; meaning for me to calculate they're weight is pretty simple for me. It's not the weight so much--it's the available free board. When I calculated the available free board as additional weight this equated to available upward (bouyant) energy. In otherwords: for every cubic foot you have approx. 63/64lbs of bouyant ^ energy.

Extending this out shared some very (I think) impressive figures. Yet, here we're talking a specific location again and an area that would have larger tides than some other place. So, again, AE idea's are very limited by site/regional specific resources, and especially Weather/Sea conditions in the case of "Wave Energy" But the thought keeps coming back about tides: "They've always been there as long as they ebb and flow."

I'll stop for now.
Thanks Dave

David · Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 17

Awesome. Well, you are quite welcome here.
It does take time, but if a few people like you are able post over the coming year a few, we'll build this up, and help promote alternative energy.

I used to run a recycling company, and also started an environmental awareness group in college. Also, my parents work here:
http://www.aeecenter.org/
And I run several other forums.
www.forumplexus.com