Posted on 07/30/2024 7:57:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
Image Credit: Ocean Energy USA LLC
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The world’s first-ever grid-scale wave energy device has been installed at the US Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) on the windward coast of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu.
Funded by the US Department of Energy and developed by the Irish energy company Ocean Energy USA LLC, the massive energy harvesting device they call OE-35 is designed to capture the energy generated by ocean waves, sometimes referred to as “blue energy,” and convert it into usable electricity.
The novel power generator will undergo several tests before being connected to the Hawaiian energy grid. Once connected, it will represent the largest wave energy harvesting device currently in use anywhere in the world, according to a press release announcing the placement of OE-35.
“Following over a decade and a half of design, trials, testing, and building, we are excited finally to be able to take this major step towards commercialization with our world-class OE-35 device,” said Professor Tony Lewis, Ocean Energy’s Chief Technology Officer.
Wave Energy Harvesting Seeing Renewed Interest While renewable energy technologies like solar and wind power have outpaced the alternatives, the ability to capture the energy generated by ocean waves and convert it into electricity was first tested in the mid-twentieth century. Unfortunately, low performance and difficulty in placement and use have limited its adoption compared to land-based energy solutions.
More recently, renewed interest in wave energy harvesting, especially in coastal locations, has begun to drive improvements. Earlier this year, The Debrief reported on a wave energy harvesting “hack” developed by scientists that improved the performance of standard triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) simply by repositioning the electrode within the device. That work showed increases in energy output over previous designs, ranging from 2 to 3.5 times.
In China, another team of researchers used TENGs to develop a “rain panel” that generates electrical energy from the impact of raindrops on its surface. While not commercially available, these types of devices could offer a whole new way to capture and use energy.
Image Credit: Ocean Energy USA LLC
OE-35 Potential rated Capacity of 1.25 Megawatts
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Unlike some other wave energy harvesting systems, which are comprised of a chain of smaller modules, the OE-35 is a single, massive 826-ton wave energy converter buoy. According to details released by the company, the OE-35 measures 125 x 59 feet with a draft of 30 feet. When operating at full capacity, this first-of-its-class energy harvester boasts a “potential rated capacity” of 1.25 megawatts.
For its current round of testing, the offshore device is located north of Mōkapu Peninsula, at the WETS site in Kaneohe Bay, after it was towed from Honolulu on Friday, July 19. While few details are available on the nature of the system’s upcoming tests, the company did say once they have determined it is ready for deployment, they plan to connect it to the Hawaiian energy grid via undersea cables “in the coming weeks.”
Funded by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), the $12 million project is hailed by the company as a major step forward for renewable energy harvesting. If it passes the test, it will be the first grid-scale system using this technology to be deployed. It could also represent an enticing new option for governments and companies looking to generate power with a much lower carbon footprint than traditional power generation technologies.
“This internationally significant project couldn’t come online at a more critical time for the US and Ireland as the World needs to accelerate the pace of decarbonization with new and innovative technologies,” said Lewis.
And Doc Brown might agree that if a 200-foot tsunami hits the wave-energy harvesters they might generate 1.21 gigawatts, enough to power a flux capacitor for time travel.
“Given a -3dB rule of thumb, I’d say about 600 kilowatts.................”
Given a -20dB rule of thumb, I’d say about 12 kilowatts.................
Best company name for something like this would be "Gravitas". :^)
😁..........................
Thanks to Robert A Cook PE for finding the real information of this project, showing that there's not much there there. I'll focus on the cost. This comes out to $10 per Watt, or $10,000 per kilowatt! Then you get into the fact that it has moving parts (more chance for failure), and repairs are done out on the water (making repairs cost way more than repairs on land).
Compared to my solar panels costing me $1,000 per kW (probably would have been $700 per kW if the solar tax credit didn't exist and artificially inflate the price I had to pay).
“No connection to shore power. No cabling, Tidewater access roads and towers. Transformers and rectifiers or inverters or battery storage devices so what little energy is created at random tides can be provided “when it is actually needed” back on shore.”
The dollar figure is for the project which includes grid connection but that figure sounds low.
Correct, sir!
Huge waste of money is what I see here, besides the visual blight.
will it mess up the whales like the offshore wind machines?
I built a small-scale TENG using household materials and was impressed that it could generate 100mV from a tiny kitchen sink stream of water. Harvestable energy to be sure.
Let’s get Albert and his E=MC2 theories working on this....ample mass and energy involved.
You can see where I lived and worked in that picture....
Amen, build nukes. This is madness. Unless the whole thing is made of something that is non-ferrous and tougher than steel, then this thing may last ten years before it craps out. Removal cost will be huge, unless they plan on turning it into a reef.
Thorium based nuclear would be ideal. Hafnium Isomer nuclear even better, though with Hafnium, the impulse to make bombs and bullets out of it would be incredibly tempting.
Sap energy out of waves?
Sucks to be a surfer...
So, by “harnessing” the wave energy, does it in any way squelch the wave action?
In five years are we going to be hearing “Save the Waves!” from the greenies?
Great name - or Moon Pool (Pull) If this doesn't come with expensive rusted parts breaking off like wind turbines, and doesn't cost more energy than it produces, this could be an answer.
You have to do LOTS of homework to determine if solar is a good option for you. And if so, then do LOTS more homework to determine how much solar to get to take advantage of the economies of scale (more is better ROI), but not get so much that you run against the law of diminishing returns (more is less ROI). Same thing for inverter capacity and battery capacity.
I live in an area that's good for solar (the south). I had a small system for a year to make sure I liked it, then upgraded it to the full system I wanted originally (but only after I saw it worked well for my wife and me).
I exported the data recorded by my inverter in 5-minute candles (how much it gathered from solar at that time, how much it pulled from the grid at that time, to meet the power my home needed at that time, how much excess solar power was stored to batteries at the time, and how much battery power was pulled at the time). I imported that data into a SQL database on my personal laptop and analyzed exactly how often I could use more solar, more battery capacity, and more inverter capacity. I also analyzed how often extra solar equipment would be a waste of money. In between the upgrades I did other energy improvements to the home like installing a variable speed heat pump HVAC and hybrid water heater and insulation and such. I let all of that information drive exactly how much of my solar components I upgraded when I did the upgrade 2 years ago. And since it was time to replace my wife's car anyway, I replaced it with an EV and we do most of our driving in it. (Again, do the homework before getting an EV). We drive on average 1,300 miles per month on home charged miles (not counting if we take the EV on trips and charge away from home).
All of that is worth it even without selling power to the grid (which, depending on where you live, may result in you paying higher fees than you'd get back for putting power onto the grid, again, do your homework). That was two years ago. One more change was done after that: I've been selling power to the grid only for the past 10 months, only after I had the solar upgraded for a year and studied the telemetry to see if I'd make money selling power for about 1/5th as much as I pay for power (but adding $2/month in fixed fees plus a demand charge that only us people who sell power pay, at least where I live). Soon, on the 1-year anniversary of selling power to the grid, I'll see if selling power made me more money than the extra fees cost me. If not, I'll turn off the grid-sell feature and tell the power company that I'll go back to being billed like a regular residential customer (except for the fact that I pull from the grid only about 18% of the power we consume, because solar provides the other 82% of the power we need, including charging the EV).
What I pay now per month in tiny power bill + payment on a loan I took out to pay to install solar and do other energy improvements on the house, is way less than what I would be paying in large power bill + large natural gas bill + lots of gasoline at the pump. What I pay now is equivalent to what I used to pay for those things in year 2019 (last year of Trump before China virus) + $400/month I was putting aside to a car savings account to pay for the next used car we'd buy to replace old used car. I use that car savings account + the HELOC loan + the solar tax credit and EV tax credit to make the EV payments. The solar tax credit will end the same year that the EV payment ends (4 year car loan, and the solar tax credit is not refundable, but does carry-forward to future years). Meanwhile, my budget feels like it's still year 2019 as far as energy and transportation costs go. In short, what the solar/EV/home improvements project has done for us is protecting us from the past few years of sky high energy costs that the Dims put onto us with their warmagedddon cult.
But again, that works only if you DO YOUR HOMEWORK and take ownership of the details to make sure they fit your energy consumption habits and transportation needs and wants. I did enough homework before buying solar -- enough to tell who was scamming me and also know that my calculations can't depend on the grid-sell. Solar is worth it to me mainly by saving me on how much I pull from the grid. The amount the grid pays me for grid-sell is just a little gravy on top.
I had a similar idea about thirty years ago, of installing turbines on the seabed or at river mouths where there are constant currents. Someone reminded me that it would chop up too many fish and other marine critters.
Our panels more than pay for our yearly electricity cost. In some months, like December, January, and February we pay $30 to $75 per month. In other months, like April, May, and September, we typically get a credit from net metering, which offsets the electricity we use for air conditioning in the Summer. What makes the system profitable is the $350 - $400 yearly check we receive for our SRECs. I honestly don’t know or care where the check comes from or what SRECs are or what the acronym actually stands for. What counts for me is that the check is consistent each year and it clears my account.
“could” “might’ “may” yawn
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