Energy generation from the sea

badtoro

Hi,

Just browsing Pinterest and see lots of energy generation projects ideas on there which are doable by normal folk, wind, solar, hydro etc. I dont see much in the way of energy generation from the sea, I wonder would anyone have any leads? Not big commercial, state, university type projects, rather those for the ordinary person.

Thanks.

badtoro

Ok, looks as if the forum hasn't survuved.

badtoro

badtoro wrote: »

Ok, looks as if the forum hasn't survuved.

The forum’s fine.

I read your question when you posted it and decided it was so ‘out there’ that I couldn’t be bothered looking into it. Did you?

Tabnabs

Too many variables when tide, storms, state ownership of foreshore, corrosive environment etc. are taken into account. Simply not worth it.

CJhaughey

The sea is a hostile environment for anything mechanical.
It also has a lot of energy contained in it through tides and swell but harvesting that energy is much more difficult as it is so powerful that most energy generating devices or structures simply can't survive the energy created in a normal storm situation let alone a violent storm.
For the average person generating power through wind or solar is much easier and less prone to weather damage, it also has much greater availability.

Stovepipe

Most of the smaller projects use confined spaces like harbour inlets to drive submerged generators like Wavebob but the level of maintenance required is way above any open air device like a wind turbine. If you had a tidal area at your disposal, you could probably rig a turbine or a wheel of some kind to provide generator power but you'd be constantly cleaning the surfaces of marine growth. Turbines need to have clean blades to be efficient. You could possibly run an Archimedes screw or even a vertical turbine, as they have done in land hydropower schemes. Apart from that, the effects of corrosion would mean that the device would have to be pulled out for deep cleaning or replacement of vanes or parts of wheels or replacement of bearings, in the fashion of a ship being drydocked once a year.