Ships to harvest power from waves

Going green often involves the following – driving a hybrid vehicle or an all-electric car, or perhaps being in possession of solar-powered devices around the home as well. Well, how about those who are rich enough to own their private yachts? Perhaps Andre Sharon’s new concept might be utilized, where he intends to outfit ships with a wave-power system that will harvest energy, delivering it back to a power grid that is located on shore. This seems more to be an idea that governments (except for landlocked countries) all over the world can take advantage of to alleviate the looming energy crisis. 

Currently, traditional wave-power systems are located permanently in the middle of the ocean, relaying juice back to the energy grid through undersea cables that aren’t cheap at $500,000 per kilometer. With this new concept, there won’t be any more need for such cables, hence reducing the cost greatly. No idea if companies manufacturing those cables will oppose vehemently to this idea though.

The proposed ship measures 50 meters long, and will rely on a system of buoys that hang from pivoting arms on the side of the ship to harvest the energy there. All electricity will be safely stored in an on-board battery that can hold up to 20 megawatts of juice. It takes around 20 hours of time out at sea at the very least to achieve a full charge.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Green, Transportation
Tags: electricity, wave