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https://renews.biz/94907/eco-wave-kicks ... e-project/

I wonder if these things are actually viable?

They have been in development for a long time, let's hope they are robust enough and not a white elephant...

That's my fear - lots of large moving parts and exposed to rough conditions

dan_b wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2024 9:38 am https://renews.biz/94907/eco-wave-kicks ... e-project/

I wonder if these things are actually viable?

Over the last few years there have been several installs (on a smaller scale) of this tech around the World. So hopefully they are proving themselves. The big plus with these, is that they use existing infrastructure, such as harbour walls, rather than being entirely new/separate items.

Wave energy is one of the things I'm watching with keen interest. It has enormous potential from the vast amount of energy in the water, but the systems keep being destroyed ..... by the vast amount of energy in the water.

The US just invested a huge amount in wave energy research, so that may help.

But no idea if wave energy will be successfull?

I understand the attraction of wave energy BUT in the last forty or so years we still haven't achieved commercial systems meanwhile wind turbines, incidentally predominantly powered by the same stuff that creates waves, are varied and widely commercially applied. Its a bit like the fusion argument why try to recreate what you already have free supplied by your local star ?

Why bother with wave energy when you can slap some WT's in there instead knowing they will work and work well - after all no sensible waves on a calm day so the wind is the driving element and we have the technology to apply to wind, use the sea for tidal power, something that's also provided for free curtesy of another nearby celestial body and does not need wind input to work.

Moxi

The biggest problem with this tech is it cannot be expanded easily. One designs a wind turbine and sells thousands , PV and millions but each wave power project will need to be individually designed. Non starter.

Ken wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 9:48 am The biggest problem with this tech is it cannot be expanded easily. One designs a wind turbine and sells thousands , PV and millions but each wave power project will need to be individually designed. Non starter.

Not sure that is quite fair... if you have the basic design sorted (and corrosion-resistant detailing) then you ought to be able to adapt its geometry to other locations after looking at their wave pitches and amplitudes...

However I doubt that there are many sea walls and harbour defences which would be able to withstand the forces from these things just being bolted on. Maybe they will work financially if they are a "green enhancement" to a wall which needs rebuilding anyway - i.e they let some body get funding for a sea wall upgrade or repair based on the fact it will deliver RE as well. In which case they might as well put in the foundations and tower for a turbine too!

In St Davids for the weekend and saw this ..........

ecogeorge wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:54 pm In St Davids for the weekend and saw this ..........

https://interregtiger.com/expanding-the ... sey-sound/

Didn't start well though,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-38236014

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-sou ... s-37752750

The bugger of this is the harshness of surface environment. Can get past corrosion without much difficulty, hard to do anything about marine growth. The one I'd think would trip it up is the varying angles of attack that any dock mounted wave machine is hit from.

It doesn't take much on a fixed installation to move the stress point and repeat fatigue. The simplest I've seen are accumulator charging hydraulic cylinder. A bit like a nodding donkey in reverse.

Hell of a kicking they seem to take. Don't get me wrong, I hope they succeed but I don't know anything metal that does well in the sea without regular maintenance or replacement and that in itself is massively expensive to carry out with multi month system shutdown if it goes wrong at the wrong point in the year.

The dock sea surface interface point between air & water can be absolutely brutal.

If I ever backed something sea energy based, it would have to be subsurface, midwater and current depending not wave.