Just be Green

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To protect the environment for future generations it is vital that we move rapidly to a more sustainable lifestyle, reducing carbon emissions of greenhouse gases and consumption of limited resources.

WAVE POWER

Waves are caused by the wind blowing over the surface of the ocean. In many areas of the world, the wind blows with enough consistency and force to provide continuous waves.Wave power devices extract energy directly from the surface motion of ocean waves or from pressure fluctuations below the surface.

Wave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work , for example for electricity generation, water desalination, or the pumping of water (into reservoirs). Wave power is distinct from the diurnal flux of tidal power and the steady gyre of ocean currents. Wave power generation is not currently a widely employed commercial technology although there have been attempts at using it since at least 1890.

There are several methods of getting energy from waves.

The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter is a technology that uses the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. The machine is made up of connected sections which flex and bend as waves pass; it is this motion which is used to generate electricity.The Pelamis device consists of a series of semi-submerged cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints.

The wave-induced relative motion of these sections is resisted by hydraulic cylinders which pump high pressure oil through hydraulic motors via smoothing hydraulic accumulators. The hydraulic motors drive electrical generators to produce electricity. Power from all the joints is fed down a single umbilical cable to a junction on the sea bed. Several devices can be connected together and linked to shore through a single seabed cable.

The world's first commercial wave farm opened in 2008 at the Agucadora Wave Park near Povoa de Varzim in Portugal. It uses three Pelamis P-750 machines with a total installed capacity of 2.25MW. However, in November the units were removed from the water, and in March 2009 the project was suspended indefinitely. A second phase of the project planned to increase the installed capacity to 21MW using a further 25 Pelamis machines is in doubt following Babcock's withdrawal from the project.

Funding for a 3MW wave farm in Scotland was announced on 20 February 2007 by the Scottish Executive, at a cost of over 4 million pounds, as part of a 13 million pounds funding package for marine power in Scotland. The farm will be the world's largest, with a capacity of 3MW generated by four Pelamis machines.Funding has also been announced for the development of a Wave hub off the north coast of Cornwall, England. The Wave hub will act as giant extension cable, allowing arrays of wave energy generating devices to be connected to the electricity grid. The Wave hub will initially allow 20MW of capacity to be connected, with potential expansion to 40MW. Four device manufacturers have so far expressed interest in connecting to the Wave hub.The scientists have calculated that wave energy gathered at Wave Hub will be enough to power up to 7,500 households. Savings that the Cornwall wave power generator will bring are significant: about 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide in the next 25 years.

CETO is a wave energy technology that harnesses the power of the ocean waves to generate electricity or produce desalinated water.

CETO was first conceived by Carnegie Corporation Chairman Alan Burns in Perth, Western Australia. Submerged buoys are moved up and down by the ocean swell, driving pumps which pressurize seawater that is delivered ashore by a pipeline. When the buoys are onshore, the high-pressure seawater is used to drive hydro turbines, generating zero-emission electricity.The high-pressure seawater is also used to supply a reverse osmosis desalination plant, creating zero-emission freshwater. Currently, seawater desalination plants are large emitters of greenhouse gases due to the amount of energy required to drive grid-connected pumps that deliver the high pressure seawater to reverse osmosis membranes which remove the salt from the seawater.

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