Scientists: Revolutionary Device Can Harness Ocean Currents To Power The World

Daily Telegraph:

A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim.

The technology can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe.

Read the whole story: Daily Telegraph

Comments

[Jahmekyah]

What is this??? Government funded research yielding innovative results? I thought that was impossible­...you know, government being the problem and all.

[mcartri]

What does any of this have to do with Sarah Palin? Just asking...

[Jahmekyah]

Sarah Palin?? Huh?? I don't seem to remember mentioning her. I think you've got Palin on the mind buddy.

[tkondaks]

If government is throwing money around, researchers would be idiots NOT to take it.
But that doesn't mean capitalism doesn't or can't come up with innovations; they are doing it all the time...abo­ut 99.999% of the time.

[Mikeatle]

Capitalism tends to come up with ways to sell items that have been developed in university settings. On its own, Capitalism merely finds the way to move what has been developed elsewhere. As such, Capitalism is a fine method for running a large, diverse society. It isn't the only way, though.

[Jahmekyah]

I don't remember ever suggestion anything about the ineptitude of capitalism. Its ideologues like yourself with such inflexible certitude that find it so hard to accept that sometimes, for some things (like health care and certain other research innovations that require exorbitant sums of money to start) it is best for the the government to use the tax dollars we pay (you know for the betterment of society) to kick start such innovations.

[greasygreens]

These "scientists" are just your garden variety publicity hounds looking for some dollars for their "innovative" project, before it fades into obscurity on weak legs.

If it were real they would have shut up about it until it was working for real.

BTW They're looking for investors!

[stella801]

Huh? You obviously have no sense of optimism and are looking at this from an extremely negative view point. WTH? If it works why not. Get over yourself.

[greasygreens]

Actually I am an optimist. Once everyone finally catches on that "alternative" energies are all heavy consumers of fossil fuels, then we can get to the real future at hand: LIVING LOCALLY and CONSUMING LESS.

University professors making large claims are no more trustworthy than any salesman. Remember "cold fusion"? At the time, the American Chemical Society had to rent a gymnasium at a conference just to make enough room for all of the PhD "believers", at the altar of Pons and Fleishmann giving their talk.

Get a grip people! Science and technology is not a religion! If you treat it as such, you just allow PhD witch doctors to hold false status.

The only "green" technology is growing plant foods. Your children will come to know this, but hey, your SUV Hybrid just one the "Green Car of the Year" award...sa­d but true.

Especially at this time in history, we should scrutinize energy salvation claims since people are extremely vulnerable to believing them. Charlatans crawl out of the woodwork daily!

[Coinyer101]

i guess ur great idea would be giant candles?

[NoOneSpecial]

"funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Office of Naval Research"

I don't think DOE and the Navy are looking for investors.

[WongChin]

You forgot that the researchers are professors, and professors don't usually 'hide" their research. Much of their satisfaction derives from being the first to discover and announce their research, which they do through journals and other academic publications. It seems to me that this is what they have done. I would not have expected them to hide it.

[orangepetal]

This would seem one of the most common sense ways to go forward. I have seen programs where running water rotates primative machinery. This is the direction we need to focus on. In the meantime no food for fuel.

[Bitsko]

Excellent. Get this info to the 0bama administration pronto!

[Perry Clease]

If Bush hadn't stole the election from Gore we probably would already have this. But, yeah, Obama could make it happen.

In an unrelated story, the King of Arabia says that the price of waves is too low.

[Jezdukowski]

Now THAT is funny! Wave tax?

[Roland3337]

Yeah. My thinking exactly.

This is the path to the new economy: These kind of homegrown ideas.

So maybe we can switch from consumption to production

And the next Black Friday will be green.

[captainigor]

Hufffolk:

In case you havent noticed, there's a sure way to spot a freeper tro//. . .

They use the zero (0) instead of the capital O in Obama's name.

It seems to be a code. . .

[Jimmyboyo]

Great news

greater news, the article says it is gov owned (millitary) so here you go Mr president Obama....a great start to the green economy he has talked about

:-)

[UNCLEJOE]

In Main, there is a bay where the ocean tides fill and emptiers the rock bottom Pasamaquoddy Bay fifty feet deep twice ever 24 hours. Northeastern Main is prolifically endowed with such bays.

[Perry Clease]

I remember when they were proposing to use the Bay of Fundy in Canada, just north of Maine, to generate power. That bay is supposed to have the greatest tide range in the world

[AtheistUS]

Should not we see these scientists­/inventors from Michigan University now far more often than some actors or athletes? Should not we expect that a few of them may say more interesting things on big TV interviews and night shows than, say, an escort model or Joe the Plumber? And why I did not know anything about this and don't know their names but somehow still remember names like Sarah Palin? Is this really a freedom of information?

Anyway, very smart invention - using vortexes. Great.

[ID-TenTango]

I understand the premise of your post but you can't forget what drives media; the ratings.

While it's great information, it doesn't have that appeal of continued viewership. The scientists that is.

[AtheistUS]

I am not sure this reason explains everything. Of course, it is first of all a job of public TV channels to form a good taste, and the public TV and radio should be much more powerful than they are. But even commercial TV - I think it just taps into easy pattern that is already formed. Europeans do have a bit better TV taste. And here we do have a few TV shows, as stupid as they are, still much smarter than average and tap into shrill of science mixed with criminal investigation or medical adventures or something like that. (I wish it would not be in such mix though.) People also do like science fiction kind of things. By the way, Einstein used to be a real celebrity at his time.

I think the shy of media from scientific community stems from the fact that this community is highly liberal, very secular, largely atheistic, and tend to say things as they are. This community is potentially very powerful, nobody wants to awake a 'second Hollywood' - sort of like Hollywood, but full with content instead of emptiness.

[Leeny]

Well scientists would get more air time if people wanted to watch that. But unfortunately most people want to be entertained not educated.

[LeeCalif]

How cool. So, it's developed in Michigan. Why not retool a few of those auto plants....­..

[AtheistUS]

Yes! Michael Moore gave a good interview with such thoughts. (Not specifically about this water energy project, but same idea.)

[FreedomAgain]

Whatever new energy producers we create, I hope that the same super-wealthy oil companies do not profit from it. It should all be small new investors and co-ops. Keep the money here in the states.

[markanthony]

Not to be a buzz kill, but don't get your hopes up too high people. How many times has some "world changing" technology been announced in some tech magazine or newspaper, never to be heard from again? This is more likely a publicity stunt to attract funding. These types of articles perpetuate the myth that we can continue to live wasteful lifestyles because science has got our back. Meanwhile we put off making the tough choices and taking real action, only to find ourselves in a bigger hole a few years later. Where is nuclear fusion? Where is our hydrogen economy? Where are our space-based solar panels? The list goes on and on. Even if some of these technologies do have a future, it takes a looong time for a new technology to go from the laboratory to widespread commercialization. Read these scifi columns with extreme skepticism and lets try not bank our future on technological pipe-dreams. Maybe this scientist has just saved the world, but I'd like to see a bit more proof than this puff piece.

[ID-TenTango]

Pretty much....ev­erything this guy said.

[NoOneSpecial]

Not to pop your cynicism, but there is something you missed:

"funded by the US Department of Energy and the US Office of Naval Research"

That means the money is coming from a DOE National Lab and the Navy. So no, this isn't a "publicity stunt to attract funding."

You are correct, however, in that the ARTICLE might be overstating the current research and its immediate potential.

[OrganOfThought]

It gave an example of "power plant" 1.5km long, by 1km wide, by 2 stories high (I guess 20ft). And that is with a 3Knot flow. That is pretty big to power only 100,000 homes.

How many plants this size would you have to build to make even a dent in our home power needs (even a tiny dent). I live in a town in Texas with about a half a million people. 5 of these for just my town? This isn't even the 4 major cities in Texas.

I didn't even take into account the cost of building such a power plant. Lets assume its worth is infinite since it is clean renewable energy. If we built these all over America, it would only affect a tiny tiny percentage of our household usage (not even commercial usage).

And something that size on the seabed will have an environmental impact. We are worried about dolphins caught in nets, what about this thing? Are we going to cover the seabed with these?

I believe in such ideas in general. I am a leftist and an environmentalist. My engineer friends talk about such ideas all the time. But, this news story is meaningless.

[OtayPanky]

It sounds interesting, but how are you going to get a weapon of mass destruction out of this?

[Indubio]

Right! And who do the oil companies take their cut?

[OtayPanky]

They probably have the spare cash and congress people in their pockets needed to buy offshore rights to the water.

[NoMercy]

The trouble with this idea is that private energy companies would have trouble making a profit from it. How to split up the current into individually owned pieces? Difficult.

[Indubio]

Until the energy companies figure out a way to profit it won;t be developed. That's been the case with every alternative enegy idea for more than 100 years.

[ID-TenTango]

Well, considering that we're a capitalist society and everyone (and every patent) has their price, you're absolutely right.

The largest holder of U.S. patents is a fellow named Shunpei Yamazaki and has 1,432 patents. One of which is titled, "Electrochemical method for creating nuclear fusion."

I wonder how many patents the automotive giants are sitting on that would drastically reduce how much gas we use in a vehicle.

[jalapeno]

Hello, this is Shell Oil calling, we are willing to offer you 25 million dollars for this patent.

Please provide bank account number and the money will be transfered in one hour.

Thank You and have a nice day.

[ohmetoo]

Yep! It's awful to be so cynical, but time, history and news does this to one.

[Indubio]

Is it cynical to state fact? Energy companies have paid individuals for their patented inventions and then they have killed the ideas. This has been on going for about 100 years. Nothing new.

[OkayLady]

Wow! you could get power from rivers AND have salmon runs AND not pollute the water. Basic scientific research adn tech advancements have driven every era of prosperity for citizens and business alike. Who hoo for the scientists and the government on this one :)

[stanschurman]

This idea is hardly new. Harnessing the tides in the Bay of Fundy between Maine and Nova Scotia has been discussed for decades.