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Homeopathy To Cure Global Warming

Capture carbon engineering 300x147

I sometimes ask myself at the age of 92 why I have such a keen interest in the future? Electric cars, driverless cars, space travel, financial systems. energy innovation, artificial intelligence.

Because, come on, be realistic. As realistic as Warren Buffet, who, when asked by a young salesman to make an investment that would double in price in 12 months said – ‘Listen sonny, at my age I don’t even buy green bananas’.

But I can’t help it, and when I read in an energy newsletter that the future is carbon fuelled cars it has me excited.

Yes, carbon, one of the main villains of global warming could be the saviour. It reminds me of the homeopathic principle – (What causes – Cures) or ( Like cures Like)

Both President Trump and the book ‘Abundance’ are relaxed about the carbon CO2 threat because they either believe it’s cyclical or say technology will save the day – could they be right? – read on -.

Back in 2004, the film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ depicted the end of the world, as we know it, through extreme changes in weather that plunge us into another Ice Age.

In the film the cause of these extremes in weather was global warming and while the science is wildly inaccurate, there has been something ominously truthful in its predictions.

This year in the UK alone, we had record heatwaves, forest fires and snow in March. In the US it’s been even more extreme – as shown by the tragic California wildfires.

In order to prevent further warming, drastic changes need to happen, with the UN stating the world will require a transformation in society that is “unprecedented in scale”.

Even with an apocalyptic warning, such as the fire in Paradise, California, people still hope global warming is a weather pattern that will pass.

For most people the resistance to global warming is less an objection of the science, and more an objection to the lifestyle changes needed if they accept it as true.

As cited above, the transformation in society would be unprecedented, it would affect all walks of life, and people are resistant to change.

They are rejecting the solution to climate change because it does not offer any choice.

The automotive industry is a prime example; the only viable solution offered up is electric vehicles. But, for people who already own combustion cars the move to expensive electric vehicles is not an easy option.

Some bought themselves a diesel car to get cheaper tax. Now they are being told that was the wrong decision. Diesel is worse, and they must purchase an electric vehicle. Unsurprisingly, they are frustrated by the prospect.

Moreover, despite their benefits to the climate, electric vehicles are not without flaws. The infrastructure for electric vehicles, for example, is expensive. It’s currently costing the tax payers £400 million for a charging network.

Yes, electric vehicles will play a crucial role in the development of our society. They are inherently a good thing. They create cleaner, less polluted environments, they are on the whole carbon neutral and it is a step away from fossil fuel reliance.

But what about offering a choice? Giving people an option to be climate change aware without a dependence on electric vehicles.

There is a company out in Squamish, Canada, that offers this option. It is called Carbon Engineering and it is using carbon to create fuel. What is so clever about its approach to climate change is that it has succeeded in making the problem part of the solution. Remember – The Homeopathic Principle!

By using its DAC (direct air capture technology) Carbon Engineering sucks air out of the atmosphere and refines it, removing the carbon. It then combines the carbon with hydrogen and water to create a fuel that is chemically identical to the fuel used by vehicles today.

Not only is it chemically identical but it is high performance, it burns clean and it is carbon neutral. What this means is it has created a fuel that is great for your car (better than the petrol or diesel we use today), it is less pollutant – making our air cleaner – and it doesn’t contribute to global warming.

For most people, going “green”, is difficult because it results in changes to everyday life and takes away the things they enjoy.With this technology, they don’t have to do that (at least from the automotive sense). They have the choice either to go electric or to carry on as they are.

As with everything, Carbon Engineering does have its drawbacks. Unfortunately, it has similar pitfalls to electric vehicles. The plants use a lot of energy to operate and if this energy is not supplied by a renewable source then, like charging your vehicle that gets its electricity from the oil-powered plant, it is no longer a completely emissions-free endeavour.

However, this is not a finished project, it is still a private company looking for investors and if you compare it to other carbon capture companies such as the European company Climeworks, which is using CO2 to boost plants photosynthesis, its running costs last year was $600 per tonne of CO2.

Carbon Engineering has not only developed a fuel that is carbon neutral but it goes one step further. It actively removes carbon from the air. Using the same DAC technology, which refines carbon for fuel, it can remove the carbon and store it underground.

Therefore, when using the carbon neutral fuel that Carbon Engineering produces, plus the safe removal and storage of carbon underground, one can contribute negative emissions.

What this means is that while driving, you could be actively contributing to the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, rather than its production.

Unfortunately, the company is still private, but its potential is massive. Its current investors include Bill Gates, so you can be sure that it will be making headlines in the future.
Acknowledged – Extracts from ‘The Exponential Investor’-DONOVAN MATTHEWS.

Comment
[-]kenny-crane (64)
The idea of taking carbon out of the air and using it for fuel is fascinating and it could really solve some problems if it works. I had not heard about this so thanks for letting me know!

[-]ijavee (59) · last month
Hi Kenny.Thank you.My enthusiasm for new breakthrough energy discoveries is being tempered somewhat by nothing being heard of these great sounding ideas afterwards.

Off the top of my head I think I’ve written about half a dozen posts on Steemit relating to energy breakthroughs.I.E. -June 6th 2018.’Infinite Energy within our Grasp’- October 29th 2018 -‘Energy Revolution Close’says Eoin Tracy.

Again from memory, because I’m too lazy to look up my articles this Sunday morning,the breakthroughs have involved magnets,fusion,home nuclear reactors,super batteries storing solar source energy,etc. Usually the initiatives have Bill Gates as an investor which adds credibility.

The doubts arise because nothing seems to be heard of afterwards.I receive Bill Gates newsletter,but I cannot recall any mention of energy inventions. You would think that when governments are proposing to invest millions in nuclear power plants,someone would query the neeed if there are so many new technologies near to success?

Did anyone at the recent climate change conference in Katowice,Poland,where 200 countries were represented, mention new technology?.Aparently not,and I believe Bill Gates attended.

Wind turbines generating 4.5% of US electricity Updated for 2026

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The wind turbines are turning across America, and a major report by the US Department of Energy (DOE) says the wind energy sector now supplies 4.5% of the nation’s electricity.

Given the right energy policies and investment in infrastructure, that figure could increase to 10% by 2020 and to 35% by 2050, the DOE predicts.

That will benefit tens of thousands of workers who will be employed in one of the US’s fastest-growing industries. It’s also excellent news for those who suffer the toxic impacts of coal mining, and power station fumes – and for the climate.

It will moreover, will help preserve supplies of increasingly precious water, used in huge volumes by thermal power plants. Many parts of the western US, notably California, are in the grip of a severe long term drought.

“Deployment of wind technology for US electricity generation provides a domestic, sustainable and essentially zero carbon, zero pollution and zero water-use US electricity resource”, the DOE says.

Impressive growth

The rate of growth of wind power in the US has been impressive. In 2011 alone, nearly 3,500 turbines went up across the country. And the Natural Resources Defence Council says that a typical 250 MW (megawatt) wind farm – around 100 turbines – will create 1,073 jobs over the lifetime of the project.

The DOE says costs of wind power are dropping, while reliability and other issues are being sorted out. “Wind generation variability has a minimal and manageable impact on grid reliability and costs”, the report says.

Texas is the top wind power state, followed by Iowa, California and Oklahoma. At the end of 2013, the US had 61 GW (gigawatts = 1,000 MW) installed – up from 25 GW in 2009.

The aim is to increase those figures to 113 GW by 2020, to 224 GW by 2030, and to more than 400 GW by 2050.

The DOE says that if these plans are realised, the emission into the atmosphere of more than 12 gigatonnes of climate changing greenhouse gases (GHG) will be avoided.

“Wind deployment can provide US jobs, US manufacturing and lease and tax revenues in local communities to strengthen and support a transition towards a low-carbon US economy”, the report says.

The trouble is that there is considerable resistance to wind power in parts of the political establishment. The DOE report – while not directly accusing Washington of standing in the way of progress on wind – does say that “new tools, priorities and emphases” need to be set in place in order to achieve wind energy targets.

Driven by tax-breaks – now can it keep on growing without?

Policies to encourage wind development are also required. A special Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC), which effectively gave subsidies to the wind industry of about $13 billion a year, was introduced in 1992.

But when the tax credit came up for renewal in 2012, it was not retained in the tax code, and finally lapsed at the end of 2013, although the oil, gas, fracking and coal industries – all major GHG emitters – have continued to receive subsidies.

Political analysts say there is little likelihood that the PTC will be renewed by a legislature controlled by the Republican party – large parts of which are viscerally opposed to giving financial incentives to the renewable energy sector.

The elimination of tax breaks initially slowed growth in the construction of wind energy facilities, but the industry remains upbeat and says investors are still putting money into projects. Indeed the US wind industry may now have reached a level – in terms of scale, cost and proven performance – where it can keep on growing even without the tax breaks.

Rather more critical may be the urgent need to build new transmission lines to carry the power from wind farms to where it’s needed. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which represents the industry, calculates that about 900 miles of transmission lines need to be put in place each year up to 2050 if the DOE is to achieve its wind power goals.

“The US is blessed with an abundant supply of wind energy”, the AWEA says. “Pairing this homegrown resource with continued technology innovation has made the US the home of the most productive wind turbines in the world.”

 

 

Kieran Cooke writes for Climate News Network.

 




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New technologies promise cheap wave power Updated for 2026

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All along the coasts of Europe where the Atlantic waves crash onto the shore there are experimental wave power stations producing electricity.

Now engineers in Norway and Sweden – two of the countries trying hardest to develop this technology – have announced “breakthroughs” in their methods, which the inventors believe will make wave power competitive.

At present, most wave power stations are small-scale. All of them work, but making them commercially viable to compete economically with other renewables and fossil fuels has so far eluded their inventors.

The latest Norwegian experiment has been installed in a redundant fishing vessel in the Stadthavet area of West Norway, an area designated for renewable energy testing.

Like all the best ideas, it is simple. “In principle, it works almost like a bicycle pump”, explains engineer and project manager Edgar Kvernevik, of Kvernevik Engineering AS, who has spent much of his working life designing and building vessels.

‘Bicycle pump principle’

The makers have installed four large chambers in the vessel’s bow. As the waves strike the vessel, the water level in the chambers rises. This creates an increase in air pressure, which in turn drives four turbines – one for each chamber.

The pitch of the vessel also contributes by generating additional air pressure in the chambers when the wave height is large. The design of the chambers is such that they work in response to different wave heights, which means that the energy is exploited very effectivel, says Kverneviky:

“The plant thus produces electricity with the help of what is called a fluctuating water column. All we have to do is to let the vessel swing at anchor in a part of the ocean with sufficient wave energy. Everything is designed to be remotely-controlled from onshore.

“This floating power plant has also been equipped with a special anchoring system, which means that it is always facing into the incoming waves. This ensures that the plant is in the optimal position at all times.”

The turbines on the deck of the vessel continue to work regardless of whether the chambers are inhaling or exhaling air as the wave runs past the vessel.

Hydrogen production at sea

Researchers in Stadthavet, which has a high average wind velocity, have also been studying the idea of floating wind turbines. The project is now looking at combining wind turbines and wave power plants on the same vessel and using the electricity to create hydrogen gas – a way of storing the energy.

“We see this project as a three-stage rocket”, Kvernevik says. “The first stage is to test the model we have just built to make sure that electricity generation can be carried out as planned. Next, a hydrogen production plant will be installed on board the vessel so that the electricity generated can be stored in the form of hydrogen gas.

“We have high hopes that hydrogen will be the car fuel of the future. Our aim is to work with others to produce hydrogen at a competitive price – based on an infinite resource and involving no harmful emissions.

“The plan is then to construct a plant with a nominal capacity of 1000kW (1MW). We will do this by installing five production modules similar to the current plant, either on a larger vessel or a custom-built barge. Finally, we will build a semi-submersible platform designed to carry a 4MW wave power plant with a 6MW wind turbine installed on top.”

The Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute (MARINTEK) is one of the project partners that have contributed towards the development of the wave power plant.

Reliable source

Meanwhile, a Swedish company claims to have cracked the problem of scaling-up wave energy with a gearbox that generates five times as much power per tonne of device at one third of the cost.

One of the obvious problems with wave power is the height and timing of the waves, making it difficult to convert the power into a reliable energy source. But CorPower Ocean‘s new wave energy system claims to produce three to four times more power than traditional systems.

Patrik Möller, CorPower’s chief executive, says the wave energy converter – in contrast to competing systems – can manage the entire spectrum of waves:

“We can ensure that it always works in time with the waves, which greatly enhances the buoy’s movement and uses it all the way between the wave crest and wave trough and back in an optimal way, no matter how long or high the waves are.”

The new system that helps to solve this problem is based in a buoy that absorbs energy from the waves – a scaled-up version of a heart surgeon’s research into heart pumping and control functions.

The buoys are compact and lightweight and can be manufactured at a relatively low cost. A buoy 8 metres in diameter can produce 250-300 kW in a typical Atlantic swell. A wave energy park with 100 buoys can generate 25-30 MW.

 

 

Paul Brown writes for Climate News Network

 

 




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Asia powers into the forefront of solar revolution Updated for 2026

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Solar power is on course to overtake nuclear as a primary source of electricity production as the price of photovoltaic (PV) panels continues to fall.

Mass production in China and Taiwan has helped to increase the extraordinary growth of the solar power across the world and has led to an 80% reduction in the cost of panels since 2008.

Europe, and particularly Germany and Italy, led the way in solar installation, but Asia and the US are now catching up fast.

Africa, which has the most potential to benefit from solar power, has been slow to adopt the technology, but is now embracing its possibilities – especiallin South Africa. While investment in small domestic installation continues, there has been a big increase in utilities creating large solar farms.

These are the main trends outlined in a detailed PV Status Report for 2014, released by the European Union. The report, which assesses the state of the world market and its growth in individual countries, is also scathing on the continuing subsidies for fossil fuels, which massively exceed those for renewables.

Between 2007 and 2013, IEA figures show, over $3,400 billion were spent on direct fossil fuel subsidies worldwide – excluding global producer subsidies. “With 2007 to 2013 PV system prices, this subsidy would have been sufficient to install about 880GW of PV systems worldwide, able to produce about 1,000TWh of electricity or 4.4% of global electricity demand.”

And at the lower prices of 2013, with residential systems costing around $1.85/Wp, that same sum could have paid for 1,840GW of PV electricity systems – enough to supply almost 10% of the world’s power.

Battery storage: encouraging progress

Developments in renewables continue to be encouraging, particularly electricity storage from solar. Using ion-lithium batteries, new technologies are being deployed to store surplus electricity generated during daylight hours, for use during evening peak periods.

On a domestic level, this makes economic sense because the cost of generating electricity at home with solar panels is now cheaper than buying it from the grid in many countries. Being able to store your own power for use at night will save money, as well as reducing peaks in national demand.

On a larger scale, the report gives examples of wind and solar generation power stations combined with battery storage, which are being tried successfully in China.

And as solar PV’s proportion of total electricity supply increases, as in Germany and Italy “new technical and regulatory solutions have to be implemented to avoid running into the problem of curtailing large parts of this electricity.

“Besides conventional pumped storage options, electrical batteries are becoming increas-ingly interesting, especially for small-scale storage solutions in the low-voltage distribution grid.”

Solar taking the lions share of investment worldwide

Solar is now the renewable of choice, overtaking wind. In 2013, solar energy attracted 53.3 % of all new renewable energy investments, a staggering $111.4 billion (€82.5 billion).

While the report gives detailed figures for individual countries only for 2013, it says that the growth of the industry continued in 2014, although it varied depending on the policies of individual governments. Asian markets were especially dynamic:

“In contrast to Europe and the Americas, where new investments in renewable energy fell by 42% and 8% respectively, new investments continued to rise in Asia / Oceania. The leading country in new renewable energy investment was China at $54.2 billion, followed by the USA at $36.7billion and Japan at $28.6billion.”

The European Union (EU) as a whole saw investments of €25.2billion, led by the UK with €9.2billion – the only European market with increased investments – well ahead of Germany at €7.5billion.

Japan recorded the largest change in 2013, with an 80% increase compared to 2012 – partly spurred by the nuclear accident at Fukushima in March 2011, which made the safe and reliable option of solar more attractive.

Over five years South Africa saw the strongest growth at 96% followed by Japan (57%) and Australia (32%) – whereas the EU saw a decline of 6%.

Investments in 2013 were used for installing 87 gigawatts (GW) of new clean energy generation capacity, bringing the total to 735 GW, and thus capable of producing more than 1,700 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity – or 70% of the electricity generated by nuclear power plants worldwide.

Africa’s vast solar resources

The report says: “Despite Africa’s vast solar resources and the fact that in large areas the same photovoltaic panel can produce on average twice as much electricity in Africa than in Central Europe, there has been only limited use of solar photovoltaic electricity generation up until now.”

But according to the latest study, solar PV electricity is now the cheapest electricity option for more than one-third of the African population.

Until recently, the main application of PV systems in Africa was in small solar home systems. Since 2012, however, major policy changes have occurred, and a large number of utility-scale PV projects are now in the planning stage.

Overall, the (documented) capacity of installed PV systems in Africa had risen to more than 600 MW by the end of 2013 – a tenfold increase compared with 2008. In 2014, the installed capacity is expected to more than double.

Currently, the two biggest markets are South Africa and Algeria, but all African countries are either potential or emerging markets.

Future directions

With increasing shares of PV electricity in the grid, notes the report, “the economics of integration is of growing importance” and urgent attention needs to be focused on issues such as:

  • “Development of new business models for the collection, sale and distribution of PV electricity, such as development of bidding pools at electricity exchanges, virtual power plants with other renewable power producers, and storage capacities;”
  • “Adaptation of the regulatory and legal procedures to ensure fair and guaranteed access to the elec-tricity grid and market.”

“The cost of electricity generated by a PV module has dropped to below EUR 0.04/kWh”, the report adds. This means that now the main cost component of solar power relates to getting the electricity from the module to where it is needed.

“Therefore, new innovative and cost-effective electricity system solutions overall for the integration of PV electricity are needed to establish photovoltaic electricity as an integral part of sustainable energy solutions.”

But the investment is definitely a good one, not least as far as consumers are concerned: “in contrast to conventional energy sources, renewable energies are still the only ones to offer the prospect of a reduction rather than an increase in prices in the future.”

 

 

Paul Brown writes for Climate News Network.

Oliver Tickell edits The Ecologist.

 

 




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All over the world, renewables are beating nuclear Updated for 2026

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With many of the UK’s old nuclear power plants off-line due to faults and prospects for their ultimate replacement looking decidedly shaky, it is good that the renewable energy alternatives are moving ahead rapidly.

In 2013 nuclear supplied around 18% of UK electricity but in the third quarter of 2014, nuclear output fell 16.2% due to outages, while renewable output, which had reached 16.8% of electricity in the second quarter of 2014, was up 26%, over the previous year.

Indeed, there were periods in 2014 when wind alone met up to 15% of UK power demand, over-taking nuclear, and it even briefly achieved 24%.

What next? The financial woes of French developers Areva and EDF may mean that their £24 billion 3.4 GW Hinkley nuclear project, despite being heavily subsidised by British taxpayers and consumers, will get delayed or even halted, unless China or the Saudis bail it out.

Meanwhile, wind has reached 11GW, with 4GW of it offshore, solar is at 5GW and rising, with many new projects in the pipeline. By 2020 we may have 30GW of wind generation capacity and perhaps up to 20GW of solar.

Renewables get cheaper, nuclear gets more expensive

It’s true that this will require subsidies, but the technology is getting cheaper and by the time Hinkley is built, if it ever is, the Contact for a Difference (CfD) subsidy for on-land wind, and maybe even for solar, will be lower than that offered to the Hinkley developers (£92.5/MWh).

Indeed some say solar won’t need any subsidies in the 2020s. While offshore wind projects could be going ahead with CfD contracts below £100 / MWh, and without the £10 billion loan guarantee that Hinkley has been given.

The simple message is that renewables are getting cheaper and more competitive, while nuclear remains expensive, and its cost may well rise – requiring further subsidies.

The completion of the much delayed EPR at Flamanville, similar to the Hinkley design, has been put back by yet another year, to 2017, putting it even more over-budget.

The EPR being built in Finland, work on which started in 2005, and which was originally scheduled to go live in 2009, is now not likely to be completed until late 2018. It’s now almost twice over budget.

It’s hardly surprising then that most of the major EU power companies and utilities have backed away from nuclear, including SSE, RWE and Siemens, and most recently E.ON, in favour of renewables.

And globally it seems clear that renewables are winning out just about everywhere. They now supply over 19% of global primary energy and 22% or more of global electricity. By contrast nuclear is at around 11% and falling.

Country by country, renewables are taking over the world

Looking to the future, there are scenarios for India, Japan, South Korea, the USA and the EU, looking to renewables to supply most of their electricity, with Germany and Denmark of course already acting on them – Germany is aiming to get at least 80% of its electricity from renewables by 2050, Denmark 100%.

For example, a WWF report says China could get 80% of its electricity from renewables by 2050, at far less cost than relying on coal, and enabling China’s to cut its carbon emissions from power generation by 90% without compromising the reliability of the electric grid or slowing economic growth. And with no need for new nuclear.

Although renewables are not as developed as in China, India has been pushing them quite hard, with wind at nearly 20GW, on top of 39GW of existing large hydro. PV is at 2.6 GW grid-linked so far, but Bridge to India is pushing for 100GW by 2020.

Funding problems and policy changes have bedeviled the development of renewables in India, as have weak grids, with some saying that off-grid or mini grid community projects ought to be the focus.

The new government in India certainly faces some challenges. But WWF / TERI have produced an ambitious ‘near 100%’ by 2050 renewables scenario, with over 1,000GW each of wind and solar, plus major biomass use.

The US has now gets near 15% of its electricity from renewables, with wind power projects booming, and Obama’s policy of cutting emissions from coal plants by 30% by 2030 should speed that up. The US National Renewable Energy Lab has developed scenarios showing that the US could potentially generate 80% of its electricity from renewables by 2050.

In Japan renewables had been given a low priority, but following Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan is now pushing ahead with some ambitious offshore wind projects, using floating wind turbines, and a large PV programme.

Overall, Japan has given the go-ahead to over 70 GW of renewable energy projects, most of which are solar. Longer term, a ‘100% by 2050′ ISEP renewables scenario has around 50GW of wind, much of it offshore, and 140GW of PV.

Rapid progress is being made in South America, although less so as yet in most of Africa. But the International Renewable Energy Agency says that Africa has the potential and the ability to utilise its renewable resources to fuel the majority of its future growth.

Yet the UK remains firmly stuck in a 1950s vision of the future

Back in the UK though, we have our large nuclear programme, with EDF one of the main backers. It can’t build any plants in France (which is cutting nuclear back by 25%), but the UK seems to be willing to host several – and pay heavily for them!

Similarly, Hitachi and Toshiba stand no chance of building new plants in Japan, but the UK is offering significant long-term subsidies and loan guarantees for their proposed UK projects. A far better deal than being offered to renewables.

Here the main focus seems to be on why we can’t afford offshore wind, or accept on-land wind, or live with large solar farms.

We struggle on – now generating over 15% of UK electricity from renewables, but far behind most of the rest of the EU, and especially the leaders, with some already having achieved their 2020 targets, nearly all of which were set higher than that for the UK.

In fact, despite having probably the largest potential of any EU country, we are still only beating Luxembourg and Malta.

It’s embarrassing …

 

 

David Elliott is Emeritus Professor of Technology Policy at the Open University.

Book: David’s latest book, ‘Renewables: a review of sustainable energy supply options’ is available from the Institute of Physics and the Network for Alternative Technology and Technology Assessment.

 

 




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New wave generator brightens ocean power prospects Updated for 2026

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Generating electricity from the waves in Britain took a step closer to reality this week after an innovative device – Searaser – successfully completed its first stage testing.

A 1:14 scale model of the device went through exhaustive tests at Plymouth University’s CoastLAB wave tank to verify its computed outputs in Britain’s coastal waters, and to ensure its sturdiness under extreme sea conditions.

The brainchild of British inventor Alvin Smith, Searaser is designed to overcome two of the biggest hurdles in the deployment of renewable energy on a scale that fulfils Britain’s future electricity needs – cost and variable output.

Green energy company Ecotricity and the Searaser team have spent the past 18 months optimising the design of the device and modelling outputs in real word conditions around the coast of Britain – with the assistance of marine energy consultants DNV GL Group.

Resilience to extreme conditions is essential

The determining factor in making wave power viable is resilience to often violent sea conditions, said Smith: “We’ve put Searaser through the most extreme testing regime here at CoastLAB and it’s passed every challenge.”

“This week’s wave tank testing was carried out to validate the extensive computer modelling we’ve been undertaking”, he added.

Unlike other marine energy technologies, Searaser won’t generate electricity out at sea but will simply use the motion of the ocean swell to pump high pressure seawater ashore, where it will be used to make electricity.

The motion of the waves drives a piston between two buoys – one on the surface of the water, the other suspended underwater and tethered to a weight on the seabed.

As waves move past, the surface buoy moves the piston up-and-down, pumping volumes of pressurised seawater through a pipe to an onshore hydropower turbine to produce electricity.

The Searaser could also be used to pump seawater into coastal reservoirs elevated well above sea level. The stored water could then be released at any time of the day or night to make renewable electricity on demand.

The sea could produce a significant proportion of the UK’s power

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: “Our vision is for Britain’s electricity needs to be met entirely from our big three renewable energy sources – the wind, the sun and the sea.

“Out of these three energy sources, generating electricity from the sea is by far the most difficult due to the hostile ocean environment – it’s also the least advanced of the three technologies but it has enormous potential.

“We believe these ‘Seamills’ have the potential to produce a significant amount of the electricity that Britain needs, from a clean indigenous source and in a more controllable manner than currently possible.”

Ecotricity hopes to have a full scale prototype in the ocean in the next 12 months or so, measuring some 12m deep and 1m wide. A first commercial array of ‘Searasers’ could be producing electricity within a few years. Each device will be rated at 1.5 MW electrical capacity – similar to a large wind turbine.

“The potential is enormous”, said Dale. “This is a British invention that could transform the energy market not just here in Britain but around the world. Our plan is to develop the technology and make them here in Britain, bringing green jobs as well as green energy to our country.”

Ecotricity now powers almost 150,000 homes and businesses from a growing fleet of wind and sun parks. The company prides itself on building more green electricity generation capacity than any other energy company in Britain.

 

 




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