Ships to harvest cheaper and cleaner power from waves

Posted on Jul 21 2011 - 12:04pm by Julius

At the Clean Technology 2011 Conference and Expo, Andre Sharon unveiled a new concept of using ships that are equipped with a wave-to-power system to generate energy and bring it back to a power grid on shore.

Conventional wave-to-power systems are located in the middle of the sea and send back power to the power grid through undersea cables that cost around $500,000 per kilometer. This concept presented by Andre Sharon will reduce the need for these expensive cables and reduce the cost of power generation.

The proposed ship is 50 meters long and can harvest energy from waves via a system of buoys hanging from arms on the side of the craft. The buoys would move with the waves and cause the arms to drive a generator, creating one megawatt of power per hour. The generated power is stored in a battery that has a capacity of 20 megawatts. At least 20 hours is needed to provide a full charge before the ship goes back to shore.

If weather conditions are bad, the ships can safely return to shore, unlike fixed power-to-wave devices that are designed to withstand severe storms and high waves. Sharon also said that in order to greatly reduce the construction costs, this system can be included in already existing ships.

You can check out the project’s official page for videos and more information.

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