The Anaconda rises again to harvest wave energy
By Susan Wilson
The Anaconda is another new wave based power generator. This time the energy is generated by using long rubber tubes just under the water’s surface. As seen from above they look like long sinuous snakes moving like undulating like gigantic seaweed.
Francis Farley and Rod Raney invented the Anaconda which is being developed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council with Checkmate Seaenergy.
The Anaconda is 200 meters long and 7 meters in diameter. Basically it is an enclosed rubber tube with a turbine generator on the end. The tube is anchored to the ocean floor just below the surface so that it gets maximum wave exposure.
The tube is squeezed by a passing wave creating a bulge that increases as it travels from one end to the generator on the other end. The water bulge in the tube turns the turbine in the other end creating about 1 MW of electricity. The concept is simple, and easy to maintain because of limited moving parts.
Two Wavebob generators would have to be deployed to equal one Anaconda. Since the Anaconda technology requires fewer parts, it would seem to be cheaper to build and deploy than the Wavebob.
One major advantage of the Wavebob is its visibility. People out for a day on the boat might not see the submerged Anaconda(s) until it was too late to avoid damage to both the boat motor and rubber tubing of the Anaconda.
Presumably, someone has thought about a way to prevent this. Not all skippers out for a day on the boat, think to look for submerged wave turbines, especially if they are trying to out run a squall or trolling a line for fishing. Hooking a large rubber tube anchored to the ocean floor could be extremely disconcerting.
These may not be issues off of the coast of the UK, but vacation boaters here in the US would not take kindly to having their boat engines destroyed by green technology. No matter how well it generated energy.
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