By Joe Mohr •
May 26, 2008
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Picture a kelp bed on the ocean floor swaying in the current.
Done?
Now picture an underwater field of bioWave turbines (pictured to your left) doing the same. But, unlike the kelp, supplying one half megawatt of electricity. (In kelp’s defense, it does provide oxygen, food, and a place for the elusive leafy sea dragon to hide.) Using habitat inspired and environmentally friendly design (biomimicry) the team at BioPower Systems have designed, and are now testing, the bioWAVE and bioSTREAM devices. Devices that sway in tune with the oceans currents while producing clean, renewable energy. The Australian company has also focused in minimizing the environmental impact of each device as not to upset the ocean’s many delicate ecosystems. Or, as their website puts it:
These systems will reside beneath the ocean surface, out of view, and in harmony with the living creatures that inspired their design.
No matter what new energy proposal someone makes, it’s bound to attract an outcry of NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard). (My recent post about the U.S. generating all the energy it needed via a 100-mile-by-100-mile solar installation in the Mojave Desert, for example, evoked some protest.)
So I thought it might help to pose the future-of-our-energy question in another way: What do I WIMBY? (As in, Want In My Backyard?)
OK, here we go: Following are photos illustrating several clean and/or renewable energy options that could help us curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Which ones would you be willing to view from your backyard as a tradeoff for a cleaner, brighter future? Be honest now: I’m asking literally if you would say OK if one of these was what you saw when looking out of the window of your home.
Watch this excellent animation of how the new SeaGen project in Northern Ireland built by Marine Current Turbines will work. Transport of the units began a few weeks back and the installation of SeaGen should be completed shortly.
But is the bill different enough to pass?
As was reported at Hill Heat, and elsewhere, Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), led a bipartisan group of senators in announcing a bill to incentivize the development of renewable energy and expand energy efficiency in buildings, homes, and appliances. The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Package of 2008 (pdf) will provide some certainty to investors and those individuals and businesses that are considering adding solar, wind, biomass, methane capture, or other clean energy technologies.
Teetering on the brink of passage
Renewable Energy tax packages always face trouble in the Senate, and this dates back to our first energy crises in the 1970s. In a more recent example, a tax package failed repeatedly on the Senate floor, including a $22 billion version that fell one vote short of winning approval as an amendment to a broader energy bill in December. Many Republicans balked at the funding mechanism for the previous renewable energy incentives because they rescinded tax breaks from the big energy companies (which was spun by the right as a “tax increase.”).
By Mark Seall •
March 31, 2008
In an endeavour hopefully better fated than that of the “unsinkable ship”, the Harland & Wolff shipyard of Belfast are now building the world’s biggest tidal electricity generation system.
Named SeaGen, the 1.2 megawatt installation will generate power for over 1,000 homes using energy harvested from tides in Strangford Lough, east of Belfast.
Tidal power isn’t really talked about a lot here in the U.S., but it’s always exciting when a fresh renewable energy technology enters the equation. To wit: Britain just launched a first-of-its-kind contraption that will generate tide power for the Isles.
This past weekend, a 122-foot, 1.2 megawatt upside-down-windmill-looking-thing headed out to sea from the same dock that built the Titanic. The device, called SeaGen, will make enough energy from tidal power to feed about 1,140 homes and is the world’s first commercial-scale system for making electricity from marine currents, according to the Independent.
By Pem Charnley •
March 13, 2008
The military games must stop. The ambiguities come to an end. Explanations need to be provided.
I reported in the Guardian last month that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) were objecting to wind farms in the UK because they felt the turbines interfered with military radar. The turbines were, in their words “in the line of sight.”
(Of course, were we not a bellicose little island nation, always eager to attack and interfere with foreign disputes, we wouldn’t need to concern ourselves with defense quite so much.)
I demanded answers. Demanded, if their objections were true, that there be immediate improvements in radar technology so that the UK could proceed with meeting renewable energy targets.
75 miles was the round figure given. Were a turbine any closer than that, then interference would be unacceptable, the UK’s defense at risk.
Yet, last week there was a U-turn by the MoD. A complete turnaround that must have caused wind farm planners along the east coast of England millions of pounds: financial waste caused by military indecision.
By Pem Charnley •
March 6, 2008
Environmental decision making is fraught with contested views. An example in point is the proposed barrage that would span the Severn Estuary, not far from me really and technologically, rather exciting.
Yet negative environmental implications abound, more of which in a moment - for now, let’s quickly marvel at the possibilities.
The Good News
It seems incredible that just north of where I live, 50 miles or so, there exists the second highest tidal range in the world - with a difference between high and low tide of some 14 metres. The potential to harness this enormous flow of water into renewable energy is obvious.
