Wave Power Generation Using Reservoirs

I would be grateful if you would elaborate as I welcome intelligent feedback.

Thanks

Would you like me to pick apart your design, or explain an assinine tax loophole?

ohh ohh

assinine Taxloophole

like your attitude very much...

Tsunami traps!

Brings a whole new meaning to 'quixotic' ref alternate inputs

A minor grid problem with unpredictable power surges, though..., sort of along the lines of the Don Quixote Wind Turbine Company™, whose trademark I might sell to LynDoor Industries.

Actually....the energy you're trying to capture is from wind. Wind forms waves. I'm not a great fan of wind turbines. All you're doing is a Rube Goldberg method of capturing the same energy.

But keep thinking outside the box, that's how new ideas are born.

In my opinion wave power is superior to windpower because:

Waves are stored wind energy and are produced by both local and distant winds. They are therefore more available as an energy source than winds which are produced by local weather conditions only. Waves will produce more concentrated power for a longer period than winds.

Waves also produce damage in the form of coastal erosion and using their energy to produce electricity would solve this problem.

Wave power generation would have less impact on the environment than wind turbines

These guys aren't quite ready for prime time, but I like the idea. No waves, only tides. They could be fitted to existing bridges.

http://www.bluenergy.com/index.htm

Why not installing them at the bottom of the Saint Laurent river or any other large river for that matter? The flow would be continuous and almost constant all year long.

Depends on how deep it is, what is the seasonal level vs shipping draft, how much junk is being dragged along the bottom ... what the traffic level is ref installation and maintenance ... just off the top of my head.

But there are plenty of 'in river' turbines you could look into.

The ST Laurent is one of the biggest river in the world for its water flow.

You have a very large choice of dept from 0m up to hundreds of meters.

The Saguenay river is also a candidate. They are both relatively slow with very high volume similar to ocean tides.

As long as these "turbines" are wales, seal and beluga safe, it should be OK.

As far as floating or dragging debris are concerned, all these system will need some sort grill / fences to prevent large debris, marine life, or divers from being smashed by the blades.

anyone who's ever seen the tide come in at the bay of fundy may have wondered

how to harness all that power

Crocodiles in turbines are no problem, they get eaten by the sharks. I just hope the eggnishner never breaks down in such a location.

These are especially important in the St. Lawrence, which was dug too deep, such that too much water is lost. then if industrial communities could offer free POWER to plants locating along the banks of the "rust-belt"(--excepting the Indian Reservations of course)...

kramarat

need to think on that one; using existing bridges might well jeopardize their design parameters!

Sleepy

http://www.industcards.com/hydro-wave-tidal.htm

Regards JD.

You see this process in such as below, where in the right tidal and sea conditions a considerable amount of water is seen exiting the pools overflow outlet.

You could shape your reservoirs to more efficiently capture wave inputs - however, floating, or fixed, you are dealing with a relatively small head in the outflow, so the power available will be quite slight compared to the infrastructural investment.

Some basic sums on hydro power and mass flow, may be worth your while before investing a great deal of time and effort in this concept.

Nice, but I like this idea quite a bit more

http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2011/pr-saline-battery-energy-032811.html

It came up in a thread - it's also not so system viable as at first glance

Also not 'new' as technology goes, if one is familiar with saltwater batteries ^{_{(and their limitations)}} in other fields.

You're undoubtedly correct, such a scheme could work and may have a number of advantages (although you'd be fighting the local greenies for decades).

The problem is the cost. Engineering is all about designing for the "real world" and that means capital cost, maintenance cost, reliability, efficiencies etc are factors in any decisions made.

For example, solar arrays are more efficient if they tilt to track the sun, but it's always cheaper to fix them in one position and just add more arrays if needed.

Most tidal power schemes fail, not because the ideas are wrong but because of economics

Just a few weeks ago I thought about the same or very similar. I was not thinking of waves but head or in-flow to pressure to run little turbines.

With 4 cycles a day, why not? It never went past the theory stage and for a good reason, the cost. I was thinking of at least 300m diameter and covered by a dome to create fresh water or desalinate. I even thought of having a floating garden in the center. An Atoll for people who love living in boxes.

In my dreams, I know, Ky.

Why off topic? Any little bit of information can help. Who knows for who and were? The OP doesn't seem to mind, so far.

I didn't want to get into too much detail. The height of the water would either increase or decrease the air pressure inside the dome. Ventilation inside the building, the accommodation part, would be air-rated and cooled that way. The difference in pressure would be balanced that way and utilized.

If it would only be the cost for the hardware all would be doable. Just a doughnut shaped supertanker gone Atoll. A bit of oil rig technology and Bob's your uncle. You could have on-land manufacturing and then tow them to the next bidder. Beats trying to get to Mars, but then, I am a Fogynistic. (thanks Garthh)

It is the cost of employing engineers for months, if not years, to get a scheme like that up and running. It's the thought that counts and it is still fun to exchange such ideas in CR4. Even the shooting down bit. Beats surfing the net and getting lost any day.

Any other details on that Indian technology put into practice? I think it could have been a problem with the the amount of air being 'pistoned', no matter what flywheel size. Just the difference in density would make me chose water. Would be interesting to see how they did it.

You should see some other off topics here . You possibly have.

See you later, Ky.

GlobalSpec previous thread should find this one interesting?

Regards JD.

Reservoirs are expensive, so why not do it without reservoirs? There are "dippy-duck" configurations that depend basically on flotation levers moving with respect to each other, without need of tanks. These might be worth a look.

I sincerely think that it is a good and practical idea. Such a system could certainly be used in coasts where the tide variations are not wide and in places where tide variations are very wide, eg. the north-west coast of Australia where the tide goes upto 10 mtrs. However, I foresee a problem. If the inlet and the tail-race were to be at the same level then the concept would be still-born. If that can be overcome [I do not know how], then the idea is worthwhile pursuing.

GOOD LUCK

There are many tidal power generating projects currently in operation and Australia has several as well as Europe. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power about the Barrage system La Rance and the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangford_Lough

A tidal generator was installed in the East River in NYC back in the 90's. I know because I cast up three 6' AlMag35 blades for the project. There are several competing designs and suspending from bridges to take advantage of fast currents is a common point. There are numerous projects using multiple generators mounted on uni-poles with controls to raise and lower with the tide.

We looked into tidal power in the Bay of Fundy back in the early 70's at Foster Wheeler when it was in Livingston, NJ. There have been numerous ideas using seawalls and underwater turbines. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12767211 which is quite recent and evidently ongoing. Also see: http://cleantechnica.com/2010/08/19/worlds-largest-tidal-turbine-in-scotland/

I believe with what was previously said that the cost structure of a reservoir would be impractical if you look up the other means currently being considered and utilized. Also, having been at sea during typhoons and hurricanes and sailing up a major river after a 20' tsunami hit I don't think that it would stand the chances of a snowball in hell of lasting even 5 years which would probably not provide a sufficient pay back period.

If you want to use wave power to make power with, simply pump water up into a standard water tower using an old fashioned pioneer type windmill pump operated by a floating inertube that moves up and down with the waves instead of the propellor turning the crank and pulling the pump up and down, foot check valve at the bottom.

Then run the water back down from the 100' tall, 10,000 gallon water tower with a smaller diameter pipe into a standard pelton wheel generator setup.

there is a forum thread from 2009 re wave power that was decidely intense with some amazing computer graphics of the various big thinking ideas...If i can get back to that thread i will pass it on..I was off the web for a bit and forgot my previous access password so made up another fairly recently..

This one?

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/32245

thats it..unbelievable that one...almost breathetaking in big visionary notions..