‘Anaconda’ wave machine harnesses power of the sea
Alternative energy sources come in a variety of different flavors, only some of which have proved usable, economical, and ultimately successful. While solar energy and wind power have both been utilized in recent years, the power of the sea has yet to truly be harnessed. Can the Anaconda change this trend?
All but the most closed-minded individuals realize that it isn’t sustainable for us, the human race, to keep on using finite resources such as oil to power our lives. New ways need to be found and new methods developed in order to ensure we can still gain our energy requirements without endangering Planet Earth.
While solar panels on houses and wind farms in open areas have become quite a common sight in the last couple of decades, the sea has so far remained a largely untapped resource of energy. Which is a shame because waves have the potential to provide a fair proportion of our energy needs, and they are ecologically sound and consistent with it.
While wave energy devices such as the SeaGen and Pelamis are already being trialled, a new contender has now joined the fray, and this one seems to have bags of potential for harnessing the power of the sea. It’s called the Anaconda and despite being nothing more than a long length of heavy-duty rubber tubing, it could be used to power millions of homes in the future.
As BBC News reports, the Anaconda is a rubber structure tethered to the seabed off the coast. The waves hit one end and create a bulge which then travels the length of the tubing before hitting a turbine at the end. The energy gathered by the bulge along the way is then converted into electricity.
An eight-meter long prototype is currently being tested in a wave tank by its developers, Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd. The concept has shown to be sound, and the company is now seeking investment in order to create a full-size model of around 200-meters in length. This would cost around $3 million to create but would be capable of generating 1MW of power, enough for around one thousand homes.
The benefit of Anaconda over similar devices developed in the past is that due to its non-mechanical make-up, there is less danger of it being damaged by the necessary battering it takes from the sea. The company has a long-term goal of anchoring hundreds of these devices to areas of the coastline where big waves are prevalent, including Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Australia, and Japan.
This seems to be a promising concept, one which looks more likely to succeed than other devices tested over the years. Could the sea finally be about to be harnessed in the same way that the sun and the wind already are?
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