Wave Farm - Ocean Energy
Wave farms are large sea-borne machines used to harness energy from the sea. Big thanks goes out to Mike P. for sharing the link on wave farms. You can check out the cool movie explaining wave farms by clicking on the picture to the left. Wave Farms are an interesting form of energy generation because there is almost a limitless amount of energy created by the oceans. The movement of the waves and the resulting changes in pressure causes there to be a directional shift in the movement of water. So if one was to have a large tube in the water equipped with a turbine based energy generator, one could harness a great deal of energy. The amount of energy that is available for extraction is dependent on the amount of turbines and tubes, size is also a factor. Wikipedia says that there is an estimated one Terrawatt (TW) to ten TW of available energy. But one thing that concerns me about accessing wave current energy on such a massive scale would be one questions: If we drained too much energy from the ocean, couldn’t we possibly disrupt wave patterns and possibly create weather issues? The articles I read never really touched on that issue. The only reason why, might be because we wouldn’t need nearly that much energy.
Another issue that I was wondering about regarding wave farms would be: How do you get the energy from the turbines to the cities? Would they use some long waterproof energy cord? I’m not 100% sure how that would work.
Although Wave Farms make more sense to be used in the oceans surrounding islands and peninsulas. Large countries with ocean access could use Wave Farms as part of a larger sustainable energy program. For example: If the United States used Wave Farms in conjunction with Solar Power, Wind Power and Geothermal Power, we could have a large portion of our energy needs met.
Another factor that hasn’t been discussed about wave farms is that, where there is water and energy, communities can exist. So it is possible for in the future for entire submerged communities living below the sea to utilize Wave Farms for their energy needs. Wave Power can be used for other things than just electricity generation. You can use Wave Power to power a Desalinization Plant. This would be an important part of having an underwater town or city.
Wave Farms use supposedly simple turbine systems to generate electricity. This is a good thing, because a complicated metal system with many moving parts would probably be more susceptible to rust, corrosion, and maintenance issues.
There would also need to be safety measures for fish, so that they don’t get caught in the turbines. But from what I watched in the video the turbines seem very harmless. It’s not like they are some kind of dangerous fan looking turbine. They look more like a series of revolving doors attacked to a central area.
Overall Wave Farms seem to be a technology that needs to be explored because it is one of the few methods of generating energy from ocean movement. If we take the time to harness ocean energy we may learn better methods to acquire energy from more traditional methods along the way.
-Tyler
SOURCES:
scivee.tv – “Wave Farm” Ocean Wave (Underwater) Power Generator – by Wavefarm – September 5th, 2010 – retrieved September 24th, 2010: http://www.scivee.tv/node/22758
Wikipedia – “Wave Power” – Retrieved September 24th, 2010: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power
Wikipedia – “Wave Farm” – Retrieved September 24th, 2010: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_farm