Pelamis Wave - Seatrials

[yattrich49w]

This vid went viral on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

[tiamarquez0]

This video went viral on Czech Republic

[BASPERS]

De toute beauté

[MrUtubeHelp]

shove theese on the sides of oil tankers? Then your lauging..

[member8761]

I understand that this thing has fallen apart in rough sea recently. Too many moving parts and too much fatigue on fulcrums. Still too complicated to be the right answer.

[theshield84]

how can you get electricity from that thing?

[jmvneto51]

I dont think any of these projects that are either floating or deep in the ocean has any future! One has to realize that the marine environment is very corrosive to anything that stays in it for too long. And inevitably sea weed and barnacles will add weight and will cramp any moving part. I cant imagine the kind of maintenance it would require to keep an array of any of those devices running in an effective way to supply the demand of power that will be needed in the near future.

[bellaggio1770]

So oil rigs, ships, floating platforms have no future too? Oh wait they already exist and work fine, so where's your argument?

Of course this needs maintenance, but so does a nuclear power plant.

[jmvneto51]

There is a big difference between a platform, a concise space, which produces millions of barrels of oil and can be relocated as needed and an array of this kind of floating devices, covering many square miles of ocean, trying to produce the same amount of power. I am not against new ideas. I think we have to look for new sources of energy today so we can diminish or even eliminate the dependency we have in old sources, tomorrow. >>>

[jmvneto51]

>>>But in my way of judging, I just did not see yet any of those ´´floating`` projects that could convince me to be able to produce the amount of power we need and to be reliable and enduring. Inevitable we will go thru a stage of trial and errors until we can come up with some golden eggs. Many ideas will be put on paper or even produced. Many will work, but not enough to pay for their own cost or maintenance! They will be written off one after another.>>>

[jmvneto51]

>>>Clean coal technology is been studied and Im sure we will harvest the power of the sun, the wind, the waves, the tides, but as an example right now, we need ten thousand wind mills just to have the same output of ONE nuclear power plant. Try to understand, Im not trying to be smarty. To finish, I think the future should hold a place for new nuclear technology. That is a big change on my own beliefs but that is the kind of power I really believe today. We are surrounded by it anyway!

[aliwhitwell]

Three articulated steel "sea-snakes" moored to the seabed three miles off Portugal's northern coast, each about the length of a nuclear submarine, generate a total of 2.25 megawatts, enough to supply 1,500 households with electricity. Not a bad start!

[crinoidcounter]

They can only generate if they are deployed...not in a dry dock being repaired...again. OPTT has a much better product!

[ve2zzz]

@jmvneto51 "Clean" and "coal" can NOT be written together in a sensed sentence !!!

[jmvneto51]

I´m not really sure about that ´´clean coal technology`` that I mentioned. Just read about! But you might be right! I agree that ´´clean`` and ´´coal`` seems controversial.

[jsb42]

ORKNEY!

[veerarajen]

nice pelamis

[arthurlaycock]

It's not possible to put URLs into comments, but go to the bbc website and search for "Wave farms show energy potential" it should be the first article - 2 March 2007. It is on exactly this tech. The info you're looking for is under the heading "large cables"

[brevobrevo]

Just wait till something sails into it

[joeydendron]

It's just possible that the intention is to build more than one.

[brevobrevo]

How's that going to stop other vessels sailing into it... that's going to make it more likely surely. I'm not dissing the design or concept, just making a reasonable observtion

[joeydendron]

People have been working out how not to sail into enormous things for a while, I'm sure they'll find some set of techniques that they can apply in this case ;)

[Sayo77]

mmm its brightly colored and made of metal ... u know that stuff that shows up on radar :)

[erafferty02]

get a farm of these things off scotlands coast now! And while you're at it, get a few wind farms out there too! The technology is here, why won't the government invest in it more!?

[arthurlaycock]

why won't the government invest in it more...

lets look at the figures one of these generates 0.75MW of power.

A coal power stations in the uk can generate up to 2000MW of power. You'd need over 2600 of these things to replace it! And they're more expensive to run. It's all very well saying "it's green, it must be better" that's not always true!

[erafferty02]

Where did you get the info on this technology being more expensive to run, a source would be nice?

[arthurlaycock]

It's not possible to put URLs into comments, but go to the bbc website and search for "Wave farms show energy potential" it should be the first article - 2 March 2007. It is on exactly this tech. The info you're looking for is under the heading "large cables"

[erafferty02]

I wouldn't expect any prototype to be cheap, but as more are produced and efficiency increases, they will become a viable alternative source of energy. They do after all run on nothing, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than coal!

Do you not think harnessing free ebergy is a good idea?

[arthurlaycock]

The increase cost applies to the actual project as well, not just the prototype.

Wave power will never become a viable source of energy, as although it's "free" (there are huge R&R costs) it is not reliable. it might compliment other sources but the long term forecast of waves is not accurate enough to rely on it.

I personally think solar and wind power with the odd hydroelectric dam is the way forward, at least until nuclear fusion is sorted out!

[GimpyGomer]

You may want to check out a company called Blue Energy as well. They don't use "sea snakes" but instead drop turbines to the sea floor which turn generators. Upkeep cost is minimal, and they produce far more power (over 1000 MW depending on the setup and rate of tide). There are viable hydro options out there.

[joeydendron]

Although there's an argument for saying that generating LESS energy by green means, and getting used to using less energy, is better than generating as much energy as we're using now by non-renewable means. A green less might actually be better than a non-sustainable more.

[bellaggio1770]

I don't understand what you mean. You're saying that using a few less dirty coal plants would be better than building renewable energy power plants?

I understand that consuming less energy could make a huge difference, but it doesn't eliminate pollution, it just reduces it.

[joeydendron]

Sorry - I was saying that green energy sources might not generate as much as coal or nuclear, but perhaps we need to learn to be more energy efficient, and switch to generating less energy by green means. I've got a theory that intense energy use itself, regardless of its source, is part of the problem: monkeys wielding too much power.

[bellaggio1770]

Oh I see, yes I think we need to drastically reduce our energy consumption (which could made a huge difference if everyone started at the same time), and at the same time replace those filthy, destructive energy sources like coal and oil.

But how do we get people to consume less energy? People think with their wallets, and as long as it's cheap, they'll use plenty of it. Taxes are the only thing that would change habits, but the 'freedom-whining' far-right of this nation will block that.

[museumoftechno]

Such a good point. People also seem to have a "preening and strutting override" that means they'll tolerate all kinds of environmental damage for the sake of looking better than their mates. I don't have a solution to either problem I'm afraid... the only way I can calm myself down and therefore using less stuff is by turning off the TV and being at home more...

[JohnCBriggs]

@joeydendron I really like this comment. At my home, I reduced electricity consumption by 75% and then get the remaining 25% from solar PV on my roof. There was simply no way I could afford a solar panel system large enough to power my old energy inefficient lifestyle.

[captinseperoth]

@joeydendron

atomic breeder reactors,and throium atomic power plants are the way to go. I hear thorium lasts about a few hundred years.

with breeder reactors,we could use the spend thorium,and uraium of the world. We could bring world peace by using nuke materials in breeder s

[UKandUSArule]

That's genius

[geogenerated]

Anyone have a status report on Pelamis testing phase?