idea to generate electricity from wave energy

it

The gulf stream falls under the heading of temperature driven circulation currents.

Indeed. Not really practical for easy energy extraction, given the boundary layer characteristics of laminar flow.

not

Well, if the wheel radius was on the order of the water wavelength, it might oscillate back and forth.

let's analyze one of the better examples, the japanese "Mighty Whale". It cost $8 million to build.

It carries about 150KW of generators. Let's assume there's lots of waves most of the time, and it makes 100KW average. Also let's assume it costs nothing to send this power to shore and convert it to usable AC voltage.

At 5 cents a KWh, it's making $5 an hour, about $45,000 a year.

Let's say the money to make it was borrowed at 4%. That's $320,000 a year just for interest.

So even if a second one was buildable for 1/4 the cost, it can't even begin to pay even half the interest.

Much less make any headway on the principal. Much less allocate anything for operation and maintenance and eventual replacement. (Metal things in the ocean don't last very long).

so? did I qualify what currents I was talking about?

That one's rubbish.

Here's one built in Britain.

$10m for 2.25MW.

Graham

Well, that one IS more impressive. Except 2.25MW is the peak capacity of the generators. We will see how close to optimum the thing can be run. Those hydraulic accumulators have a real bad thermodynamic vibe. And waves and wind are fickle. Wind farms are lucky to average 40%.

But even assuming 60% capacity factor, that's about $500,000 year of power. If money is 4%, there's only 100K left over each year after interest. That's unlikely to pay for maintenance, much less pay it off over say 10 years.

Time will tell!

How do you get that figure ? At European prices I'd expect at least twice that.

Depends on the price of electricity !

Graham

Is this an argument on charging interest or on alternative energy? :)

cheers, Jamie

My energy drops to zero sometimes

We have to go not by the retail cost of delivered power, but by the utility's avoided cost, which is likely to be less than half of that.

... true, and that's likely to be going up and up.

Yes, I know, financial talk isnt very interesting.

But in the real world there arent pots of interest-free money just lying around. Any discussion of alternative energy, to be realistic, has to take the cost of money and other financial factors into account. Utilities in most countries are required by law to be economical.

well when current fuels run out, or people realise the real cost of using them, all that will matter is does it produce more energy than it took to make in a reasonable amount of time.

Colin =^.^=

Great idea, but they've been doing it since before you were born:

Nobody's bothered to back a commercial one yet.

Good Luck! Rich

The CETO unit appears to offer some potential.

Um, 1000PSI delivered thru a 13cm pipe is going to be good for about maybe 75HP, 100KW absolute maximum. That's $5/hr, $44,000/yr. Not enough to pay the interest. Not enough to pay for one attendant, or for minimum maintenance. Not enough to make any headway on the principal.

I think this is very interesting though, its almost exactly along the lines I was thinking of, its fully submereged (in upto 20m of water) so is unobtrusive enough to cover a large area.

I wonder if 20M is deep enough to offer significant protection from natures forces that destroy other devices.

that device is only a prototype, in the update

It also says wave energy is 100 times denser than other forms of renewable energy, this is rather interesting. If I was in the fossil fuel buisiness I would be concerned.

Colin =^.^=

Here's one build from "tide" energy :

This is a very short term thinking argument.

cheers, Jamie