The claim: Japan has activated its first megawatt-scale underwater turbine, the AR1100, to harness the power of ocean currents for clean energy. Anchored to the seabed, this 1.1-megawatt machine is now generating electricity from the relentless force of the sea. …
Category: Hydrokinetics
Hydrokinetic Power
Ocean-current hydrokinetics has drawbacks, but harm to aquatic life isn’t one of them. The real problem is the cost per KWhr of the electricity they generate. When 2GreenEnergy was launched in 2009, the world was abuzz with the developments in …
Tagged with: hydrokinetic power
Does a Clean Energy Giant Rise Power Beneath the Waves?
These people say: A groundbreaking study from Florida Atlantic University reveals that ocean currents can generate 2.5 times more power than wind farms, offering an untapped, constant energy source. Unlike wind and solar, which depend on unpredictable weather, ocean currents …
Does a Clean Energy Giant Rise Power Beneath the Waves? Read More »
Hydrokinetics – Wave Energy
Most of what these people claim about their wave energy generation machine may be correct. The part about “low cost,” however, is dead wrong, which is why the world has given up on this and all other forms of hydrokinetics, …
Japan and Ocean Current Energy
Until about 15 years ago, before the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) associated with solar and wind began to plummet, the world had high hopes for the renewable energy technologies collectively known as hydrokinetics, i.e., extracting the kinetic energy out …
Tagged with: "If you don't care how much you pay per kilowatt of electricity, extracting the kinetic energy out of moving water, I'll get you all renewable energy you could possibly imagine.", levelized cost of energy (LCOE) associated with solar and wind began to plummet, levelized cost of energy LCOE, renewable energy technologies collectively knows as hydrokinetics
Video on Hydrokinetics
Here’s a video showing how a water wheel can generate electricity from a fast-running river. Is this BS? It depends on how you define “BS.” It will generate electricity to be sure. Will it do so cost-effectively? Not in a …
Tagged with: Hydrokinetics
Home Hydrokinetics
If you happen to live next to a year-round fast-flowing river, there’s no reason you can’t do what this guy did: buy a water wheel, connect it to a generator, and power your house. Will this be cost-effective? I doubt …
Tagged with: Home Hydrokinetics
Ocean Wave Energy: An Exercise in Futility
When I entered the renewable energy beat 15 years ago, devices like the one shown here, that extract some of the kinetic energy out of ocean waves, were considered potentially feasible. Over the years, however, we’ve both a) seen the …
Ocean Wave Energy
Here’s another variation on the theme of converting the kinetic energy in ocean waves into electricity. Is it any better than what’s available now? No. This device allows the waves to move a long series of conductors up and down …
Tagged with: ocean wave energy
Wave Energy
We will be hearing about niche applications of renewable energy until hell freezes over, and I have no problem with that. Having said that, I do object to developers of these technologies who claim that energy that is extracted from …
Tagged with: economically competitive with wind and solar, energy that is extracted from waves, niche applications of renewable energy, river and ocean and currents, Solar Thermal, the heat buried within the Earth, wave energy makes sense in a few coastal regions of the world where fossil fuels are expensive to import and solar and wind conditions are particularly bad
