Ocean Wave Power via Buoys - Solutions for Hawaii and East Coast
Free, Unlimited Electricity Anyone?
The time is upon us for major changes in the way we approach our energy use and we have been caught flat-footed. The world needs solutions yesterday and many of the alternative energy options are either too expensive or the technology has not evolved enough to give us an efficient and effective solution today.
We should not sit and wait for these technologies to evolve or spend ourselves silly trying to meet demand. There is an answer to solve our energy problems available right now that is both efficient and relatively inexpensive, ocean wave power.
Buoys bob up and down in the water generating electricity that is sent back to shore in a cable running along the ocean floor. It is estimated that a ten mile by ten mile buoy farm will produce enough electricity to meet the current demands of the entire state of California which needs many nuclear power plants to try to keep up.
Power buoys should be purchased by the County of Hawaii to provide free power. Why should we have to pay someone for the power of our own waves? Hawaii has some of the most powerful waves in the world. Hawaii county has the opportunity to not only implement a new system but to also own the system.
THE HAWAI‘I COUNTY ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY PLAN states, "A 1992 report prepared for the Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism estimates that capturing just 5-10% of the total available offshore wave energy Hawai‘i Island could meet the total electricity demand in 1992. The underlying idea remains valid: the energy contained in the waves around the island is theoretically capable of supplying all or most of Hawai‘i County’s total electricity demand."
The County of Hawaii could buy the buoys outright and start a wave farm miles from shore, away from any shipping lanes, and run power lines on the ocean floor to the island. The buoys create fish friendly habitats and will help us re-build our native fish population at the same time. Think of each buoy as a typical oil well. The more we put out there, the more power we get. We could supply all the power needs of our island but the rest of the state as well.
The cost for this system would be small, maybe only a $25/year increase in property taxes for each home owner and $15/year for each vacant land parcel. That could be all the capital needed to get the project going. Wouldn't you pay that much to have an endless supply of electricity? Would you want to buy an electric car and stop buying gas altogether? It is easy to see why we would want the county to own and expand this system for the good of all of our local residents and businesses.
Think of the possibilities of free unlimited power for a moment. Our hotels could lower rates, we could stop burning coal for power, start manufacturing products that take a lot of power to produce, the island could eventually build a monorail system that would only carry the cost of maintenance and construction. The county could afford to clean and deliver water to everyone on the island with the proceeds of our energy exports.
Some may say we need to use solar power but it is far too expensive and inefficient to meet our level of need. Wind power requires the purchase of land and turbines could only be placed in certain areas. Ethanol, switch grass, or other agricultural forms of alternative energy are now exacerbating problems of global hunger. Ethanol is not a solution, they are another problem. Harnessing wave power means utilizing empty ocean wherever it is convenient.
More information can be seen online at http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com. There you will find out how a power buoy company's buoy is powering a Marine Corps base on Oahu, Atlantic City, NJ, and Santona, Spain today. This energy solution is real and ready for wide-scale deployment. The real question is what would it take for us to make a change?
The time is upon us for major changes in the way we approach our energy use and we have been caught flat-footed. The world needs solutions yesterday and many of the alternative energy options are either too expensive or the technology has not evolved enough to give us an efficient and effective solution today.
We should not sit and wait for these technologies to evolve or spend ourselves silly trying to meet demand. There is an answer to solve our energy problems available right now that is both efficient and relatively inexpensive, ocean wave power.
Buoys bob up and down in the water generating electricity that is sent back to shore in a cable running along the ocean floor. It is estimated that a ten mile by ten mile buoy farm will produce enough electricity to meet the current demands of the entire state of California which needs many nuclear power plants to try to keep up.
Power buoys should be purchased by the County of Hawaii to provide free power. Why should we have to pay someone for the power of our own waves? Hawaii has some of the most powerful waves in the world. Hawaii county has the opportunity to not only implement a new system but to also own the system.
THE HAWAI‘I COUNTY ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY PLAN states, "A 1992 report prepared for the Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism estimates that capturing just 5-10% of the total available offshore wave energy Hawai‘i Island could meet the total electricity demand in 1992. The underlying idea remains valid: the energy contained in the waves around the island is theoretically capable of supplying all or most of Hawai‘i County’s total electricity demand."
The County of Hawaii could buy the buoys outright and start a wave farm miles from shore, away from any shipping lanes, and run power lines on the ocean floor to the island. The buoys create fish friendly habitats and will help us re-build our native fish population at the same time. Think of each buoy as a typical oil well. The more we put out there, the more power we get. We could supply all the power needs of our island but the rest of the state as well.
The cost for this system would be small, maybe only a $25/year increase in property taxes for each home owner and $15/year for each vacant land parcel. That could be all the capital needed to get the project going. Wouldn't you pay that much to have an endless supply of electricity? Would you want to buy an electric car and stop buying gas altogether? It is easy to see why we would want the county to own and expand this system for the good of all of our local residents and businesses.
Think of the possibilities of free unlimited power for a moment. Our hotels could lower rates, we could stop burning coal for power, start manufacturing products that take a lot of power to produce, the island could eventually build a monorail system that would only carry the cost of maintenance and construction. The county could afford to clean and deliver water to everyone on the island with the proceeds of our energy exports.
Some may say we need to use solar power but it is far too expensive and inefficient to meet our level of need. Wind power requires the purchase of land and turbines could only be placed in certain areas. Ethanol, switch grass, or other agricultural forms of alternative energy are now exacerbating problems of global hunger. Ethanol is not a solution, they are another problem. Harnessing wave power means utilizing empty ocean wherever it is convenient.
More information can be seen online at http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com. There you will find out how a power buoy company's buoy is powering a Marine Corps base on Oahu, Atlantic City, NJ, and Santona, Spain today. This energy solution is real and ready for wide-scale deployment. The real question is what would it take for us to make a change?
Tags: Biofuel, Buoy, Cost, Damns, Hig, Hydro, Low, Nuclear, Ocean, Power, More…
Views: 9
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Erha field’s offshore loading buoy.gif, 85 KB -
Power-generating buoys 2.jpg, 51 KB -
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dan on -
Thanks for the input Noel. There is a lot of truth to what you say but I know the government here is ready to move on the ideas once the new mayor is elected. I spoke with the Hawaii County Energy Coordinator. They need direction, they are almost finished with all investigating. The biggest issue is what direction to take and what to do with HELCO. I say use eminent domain to purchase the power lines from the utility and make it a public service. The benefits would be exponential to the island and state.
Also we could have the power line burried just before it comes on shore and have come out of the ground. Everything is negotiable. :)
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Permalink Reply by Dan on
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I have not seen these suggested for water applications. The only thing I can see that might be a problem is the maintenance. Too many moving parts in the water could increase the cost of use. I think the best water applications need to be protected from the water.
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Permalink Reply by Book Calendar on -
The Finavera wave buoy technology failed its recent test. Wave turbines seem to be doing a much better job. The blades can be replaced fairly easily if they snap, floating buoys have a sinking problem. When they sink they go to the bottom of the ocean and are expensive to recover.
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Permalink Reply by Book Calendar on
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It could replace most of the coastal power, not the inland power. You have to consider sending power over long distances. This is a flaw with the Pickens wind program. There needs to be a better explanation of how transmission is going to be done.
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Permalink Reply by neil cox on -
Wave power can replace perhaps half of the local power needs where waves are usually high but not too high. Extreme waves turn the buoy into a projectile with possible large liability. 1% of USA total energy needs are probable, if the buoys can be mass produced at low cost.
Million volt HVDC = high voltage dc power lines are the way to send the electricity from 40,000 big wind turbines in West Texas to cities up to 1000 miles away, but wave buoys will rarely produce enough surplus electricity to justify HVDC. Neil
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Permalink Reply by Robert Grass on -
This is all very interesting and at first pass looks promising as well. Having a strong business background and understanding that it's always about the money. Any idea what the cost is per MW? What kind of ROI are we talking about?
One of the big issues with Solar of course is the long ROI.
The reason I bring it up is that if we are going to wait for the Government to get it done, we are going to wait a long time and pay way too much. If we expect Private Industry to get involved, there needs to be a reasonable Return on Investment.
Any additional information on the cost of these systems would be greatly appreciated.
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Permalink Reply by Dan on
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I am discussing the bid for the current demand for power for Ocean Power Technologies for sell the buoys to the County of Hawaii. Unfortunately once we get as far as the bid, there is a non-disclosure agreement that kicks in. I cannot tell you the cost but I can tell you the buoys can be purchased outright. THIS IS FREE POWER, buoys are not free but the ENERGY IS FREE! And it could be publicly owned.
They can meet our energy needs and exceed them without much trouble. I don't know of any sinking buoys through OPT, I am not sure that is the same design. Remember a 10 X 10 mile buoy farm is enough to meet California's current demand. Our island will need much less and they have a higher power output buoy coming up. Hawaii needs to make the choices for alternative power and energy independence this coming year.
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Permalink Reply by Dan on
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Full Report
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hiesp_full.pdf, 2.4 MB
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Permalink Reply by James Janik on -
The current issue of Popular Science has a full article on wave power. It seems surface buoys are problematic due to the violent nature of surface ocean waves. The long term survivability of surface buoys is doubtful in harsh seas.The need for constant repair and replacements offsets the benefits. They describe a CETO project being initiated off the coast of Australia where the buoys are tethered to the ocean bottom. There, the wave energy is more predictable and less violent yet more than adequate. There are fewer concerns with shipping lanes and no concerns about esthestics. There is minimal impact on local marine biology. The steadily bobbing buoys pump water to the surface. There, the highly pressurized water is used to power desalination processes and also to generate electricity. All the complex machinery is on land so repairs are simple. All that sits below the surface are balloons, pumps, and pipes.
Unlike wind and solar, wave energy is constant. This seems so good an idea I wonder why Boone doesn't include it in his plan.
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Permalink Reply by Ray Phillips on -
I'd say the reason he doesn't include it is it's not in his area of expertise. He's an oil man, so drilling for natural gas is a natural progression. He sees the potential of wind power there in Texas, so he focuses on that.
He has come up with a plan that is narrow in scope, but is attainable if we work together. What I've seen in these posts, though, is a lot of people who have ideas that take his plan as a basic beginning to a more comprehensive energy policy for this country, one that includes his wind and natural gas ideas, but add solar electricity generation, electric and hydrogen powered cars and even nuclear and more domestic drilling. Now add wave power in to the mix.
The truth is, no one way of generating energy is the right way for every part of the country. All can be used, some more than others, to help make this country free from the domination of foreign oil.
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Permalink Reply by Dan on
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Exactly why we need to look at wave power for the east coast, the Pickens Plan needs to supply the east coast somehow and the suggestion even Al Gore is thinking about is a big network to bring power from the other side of the coutry. No need when the Atlantic is right there.
Also look at oscillating water columns on shore along the coast. Here is an animation of one design. http://www.daedalus.gr/DAEI/PRODUCTS/RET/General/OWC/OWCsimulation2...
The big advantage is that it is on land and the waves come in 24/7.
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Permalink Reply by James Janik on
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Clearly, wave energy sources are not Boone's area of expertise. But, if solving the country's energy problem is his true goal, as opposed to taking advantage of pre-existing investment opportunities (how much personal capital has he already committed to natural gas and wind power?), then I would think he should be jumping all over wave energy as an alternative source of power.
Don't get me wrong, I greatly admire what Boone is doing, but that doesn't mean I'm blind to other possible realities.
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