Scotland Building Wave Power Farms 211
eldavojohn writes "Scottish engineers are taking advantage of the huge ocean coast that Scotland enjoys by building a 'wave farm' to harvest electricity from the ocean's powerful waves. These big red tubes have been named the Pelamis System after a sea snake. Max Carcas, the business developer for the firm, says it is 'a bit like a ship at anchor or a flag on a flagpole, it self orientates into the waves ... Waves then travel down the length of the machine and in doing so each of the sections, each of these train carriages, moves up and down and side to side.' These snake-like movements push hydraulic fluid through generators to produce electricity."
Power output? (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyone know what the "hydraulic fluid" is? (Score:1, Interesting)
As per the FA, "These snake-like movements push hydraulic fluid through generators to produce electricity." Is this fluid water, or something else?
If they're using typical "hydraulic fluid" then they should be shot immediately. Or in fact ANYTHING other than water. Fresh or salt makes no difference, can't cause more than a minor blip in the salt content if it's fresh anyway.
But since the FA doesn't say, and I'm too lazy to go do a bunch of research... Anyone know?
I wonder how it compares? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:According to Wikipedia, 0.75 MW/Pelamis Machine (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I wonder how it compares? (Score:3, Interesting)
More British Sea Power (ho ho) (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Anyone know what the "hydraulic fluid" is? (Score:2, Interesting)
Tidal power is better than wave/wind - here's why. (Score:2, Interesting)
Compare to what's planned for the River Mersey (tidal range 8-10m). This may generate a consistent two gigawatts of electricity - about 3x the requirement for the entire Liverpool conurbation (Merseyside).
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/617