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Hydrokinetic Underwater
Turbines H.U.T.
Climate
friendly sustainable and renewable
Up
until now underwater turbines have not made an impact... up until now.
Hydrokinetic
Underwater Turbines are smaller than wind turbines because water is 800
times more dense than air. Smaller is cheaper to manufacture and can
cost half that of a wind turbine. Ocean tidal current can deliver
predictable 20
hours per day
and a H.U.T. can produce up to 4 times more energy than a wind turbine.
Clever use of a Venturi can accelerate
water speed through the turbine and double
the energy produced. Here
come the Hydrokinetic Underwater Turbines!
Climate
friendly, CO2 free and NIMBY (not in my
backyard).
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H.U.T is making
electricity using hydro,
but instead of falling water
from a great height,
it's flowing water at great
speed.
Hydrokinetic Underwater Turbines - without CO2 emissions!
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Ecologically secure
investments that compete with fossil,
for
yourself, your
family, your country...
and the
planet.
Wapsec
Water and Power
Security contact
Ecologically
sustainable and renewable energy solutions.
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HYDROKINETIC
UNDERWATER TURBINES AND WAVE GENERATORS
US Researchers Hope to Tap Ocean Flows for
Electricity
April
25,
2008
Researchers
in the United States are set to begin testing underwater
turbine systems that can produce electricity from ocean water flows.
by Brian Wagner,
Voice of America
Florida, United
States.
The same energy that
drives ocean waves and currents may be a rich
source of electrical power. Researchers in Florida say even gentle
flows of two or three knots are enough to drive a propeller attached to
an underwater turbine. Advocates say ocean power could be cheap and
help replace oil or coal-based systems that are blamed for global
warming.
"It is a lot more
challenging to put something in the ocean, and
certainly any energy system to go in there has to work and be
competitive with existing land-based technologies."
-- Rick Driscoll,
Head of Center for Ocean Energy Technology, Florida
Atlantic University
Douglas Bedgood is
president of Keys
Hydro Power
and says he wants to build a turbine farm in the Florida Keys, "We
could upscale this to 10 feet [three meters] across and it would be
perfect."
The goal is to
harness the energy produced by the rise and fall of
waters during the tidal cycle. His group is working on a test turbine
that it plans to submerge in a site about nine meters under water
between two islands.
"By the end of 2008
or early 2009, we will have several [turbines] just
to see how we can manage them as a group. Then another year after, it
will be several hundred," Bedgood said.
The first step,
however, is to show authorities that the groundbreaking
project will not damage wildlife or coastal resources in the popular
tourist area. Bedgood says marine life should be unharmed. "For
manatees and turtles, our turbines will be mounted up off the [ocean]
floor, so they can maneuver through them. And the leading edges of any
moving part will have foam rubber cushions on them," he explains.
Renewable energy
projects like this one aim to reduce existing strains
on the earth's resources, but they do raise concern about causing new
problems. Kenny Broad is a professor at the Rosenstiel School for Marine and
Atmospheric Science near Miami. He says new initiatives should
proceed with caution.
"Take small steps at
first, try to favor things that are reversible, as
opposed to just going for it," recommends Broad. "We are all attracted
to clean technologies, and we need to develop and promote clean
technologies, but in a responsible way."
Similar projects are
planned in Europe and other U.S. cities. Just 300
kilometers from Key West, researchers at Florida Atlantic University
want to tap the powerful Gulf Stream current that brings warm water
north into the Atlantic Ocean.
"So it is a
significant velocity with the equivalent energy of some of
the world's richest energy sites," says Rick Driscoll, who is head of
the university's Center for Ocean Energy Technology. He says one of the
biggest challenges is developing equipment that can withstand the
intense forces of the current. "It is a lot more challenging to put
something in the ocean, and certainly any energy system to go in there
has to work and be competitive with existing land-based technologies,"
notes Driscoll.
He says more
investment is needed for new technologies. "There is a lot
of significant potential, but there is a limited supply of money out
there right now," he adds.
Driscoll says federal
and state funding could help U.S. researchers
perfect the new technologies and bring the benefits to other countries
around the world.
Reprinted from Voice of
America,
a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S.
government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts
more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural
programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than
115 million people.
Illustration
of a massive ocean turbine farm
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Ecologically secure
investments that compete with fossil,
for
yourself, your
family, your country...
and the
planet.
Wapsec
Water and Power
Security contact
Ecologically
sustainable and renewable energy solutions.
|
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