Many people have attempted, with varied degrees of success, to convert the movement of waves into a sustainable kind of energy. For starters, the circumstances must be ideal in order to capture considerable amounts of energy.
Wave Swell Energy (WSE) of Australia claims to have the ultimate solution with its UniWave 200 prototype, a transportable sea platform capable of generating 200 kilowatts of electricity via an artificial “blowhole” — and it’s already been put to use, powering houses.
The generator operates by producing an artificial blowhole in a water column known as an oscillating water column.To put it simply, ocean waves enter a concrete chamber and are naturally pushed higher as the room fills before retreating. This motion drives air into a turbine, which provides electricity.
According to the business, what distinguishes the design is that the turbine is unidirectional, which simplifies the design, lowers costs, and generates more power.
The UniWave 200 was deployed last year on King Island, a tiny island in southern Australia, where it provided continuous electricity to the island’s microgrid for a year.
In reasonable wave conditions, the unit was generating 40 kilowatts of electricity; extrapolated, the quantity of energy produced on a 24-hour period is in the order of one megawatt hour. That implies that under the perfect conditions, it could conceivably power 200 dwellings.
“This is the first initiative that has successfully generated power for a client, proving that ocean energy can be used.”
This is a PR Newswire Feed; edited by Clean-Future Team