Wave Farm Technology
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With green sources of energy on everyone’s mind, fascinating ideas keep popping up. One that’s been around for a while, but is only now becoming commercialized is the use of wave energy, the natural motion of the ocean, to produce energy. We had talked about this in our Design for the Environment class so I thought it’d be cool to find out some more information on it. |
Essentially it is a semi-submerged structure composed of cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints. The wave-induced motion of these joints is resisted by hydraulic rams. These pump oil through hydraulic motors which drive generators to produce electricity. Power from all the joints is fed down a single umbilical cable to a junction on the sea bed. Several devices can be connected together and linked to shore through a single seabed cable.
Being installed to the north of Portugal, this 8 million euro project will have an installed capacity of 2.25MW, and is expected to meet the average electricity demand of more than 1,500 households. The three machines are currently undergoing final assembly prior to installation later this year.
Human ingenuity is amazing!
For more information and the original article, go here.