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The WET-NZ is in a class of wave devices known as “point absorbers.” As the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management explains, “A point absorber is a floating structure with components that move relative to each other due to wave action (e.g., a floating buoy inside a fixed cylinder). The relative motion is used to drive electromechanical or hydraulic energy converters.”
Northwest Energy Innovations says one aspect of the WET-NZ that makes it special is the ability of its float to rotate continuously and also oscillate back and forth. This allows the device to extract energy from both types of motion, the company says, while also making it less likely to be “over-stressed at the extremes of motion – an issue that has caused other wave energy technologies to suffer hydraulic ram failures … because by design they have to restrict the float motion with end-stops.”
In Hawaii, WET-NZ will benefit from a testing opportunity that had started as a Navy program, but then was superseded with a $500,000 grant from the Department of Energy. The yearlong test will take place at the Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site off of Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay, on the island of Oahu.
http://www.earthtechling.com/2012/09/nz-...egon-test/
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Hi whale song, and thanks for posting this!
I've long been interested in harnessing the moons gravity, a friend of mine wrote his thesis on how the entire energy needs of the continental US could be easily powered by the eastern seaboard alone, and ever since then I've been wondering how we could make something like this happen...
Cheers
rainyjim
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I've been hearing about getting electricity from the oceans since I was a kid and Passamaquoddy Bay. Would love to see this be viable.
David
Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com
Ninole Resident
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Fulfilling my usual role as the Devil's advocate, does anyone else see the potential for conflict as these devices line the shoreline and sap energy from the surf? Seems ironic, this being the birthplace of surfing.
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This device was fought by fisherman and by the local Surfrider organization in Westport, WA. The concerns expressed then were The effects on fish, whales and other sea life on their sensory systems and orientation and migration from electromagnetic field effects (sensory systems, orientation). There were concerns about plankton not living nearby these things. there were also concerns about mating and of course entanglement.
This was 3 years ago when we were busy moving here. I went to a couple city council hearings and there were a lot of protesters. There was a lot of money for Westport city if the project came to our shores, but instead it was vetoed due to the above mentioned issues.
Maybe the electric conversion process is better now? Anyone know about the effects on marine life and pelagic effects these days? I am hoping these concerns have been addressed in the past few years.
hawaiideborah
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The ocean isn't easy to harness. That's why things are taking so long. Wave energy is going to be second after tidal turbines. The wave designs are all taking a banging and this design broke apart, surprised they are bringing it to Hawaii. The wave buoys are doing pretty well. Even then, there will have to be fairly large "farms" of these wave energy nodes and on the Oregon coast, they are in an uproar over a no-crab zone about 100 sq miles and 2 miles off the coast. There will have to be multiple farms but even then, these are really small patches of the ocean in comparison. Most of the designs are beyond prototype stage, and have been going through environmental testing one to two years. In about 5 years, there will be production systems.
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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OTEC with National Energy Labs in Kona has been doing thermal energy conversion since the 70's. (Don't mean to hijack the thread, but it seems along the same lines.) I think they now power the whole complex and have considered building a 300 some watt generator to sell power to HELCO. Converting thermal differences from deep sea water and surface sea water to energy seems really interesting to me. Do not know much about it and do not know how environmentally friendly it is, but from what I have read it certainly seems more so than geothermal. All the damaging chemicals put into the groundwater, the blow outs and leaks, and just being on a rift zone make geothermal seem a last resort. Anybody know more about OTEC?
