Internet cables don't carry much power - just enough for the fiber optic repeaters.
One solution to help reduce losses from long cables is raising the voltage. A converter would take the power from several nearby generators and send HVDC to shore.
Every time you remove energy from a system you alter the system. Calling it 'clean' just means you don't understand how you're altering the system. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. Just that you don't know what you're doing quite yet.
The cables needed to bring the power to shore and the anchors needed to keep this device in one place do have a big impact on marine life. Anchor chains and cables need to be replaced after 25 years or so. The good thing is that the device acts like an artificial reef, attracting fish and other sealife. And trawlers cannot fish there so the seafloor is safe as well
As a subaea engineer: Maintenance, mooring and drift off, getting power onshore, cost of construction, power output. It's a great idea, but not without risks.
This is the kind of stuff that drives my motivation to get my degree in engineering. This stuff is so damn cool, and I would give anything to be able to work alongside the minds that make it possible.
People will really promote anything to avoid the topic of how cheap and sustainable solar energy has become.
Don't get me wrong, this is cool and could have potential for powering long-term research in the open ocean where solar or wind isn't possible, but it's ridiculous to assert that hundreds of these are a better solution than like, ONE wind turbine.
Waves and tides unfortunately just don't have a lot of energy to capture. This would be like proposing we put water wheels in bathtub drains.
Yeah, I have an old boat in the marina and I pay a kid with a scuba set $60 4 times a year to scrape the barnacles and seaweed off the hull. Still, windmills and big sea bouys seem to be ok. I suppose this would work even if covered in barnacles
Windmills and bouys don't have their critical moving parts all barnacled up. These do, and barnacles and mussels and stuff have long been a continued problem for mechanical systems on oceans.
The thing is the corrosion being in the saltwater 24/7. That was always the issue with this form of power and last I checked we had not solved that issue.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehT-ZTHFGg I rather like this design, although it requires a seafloor mount. The box is made of relatively cheap concrete, and the turbine doesn't contact the seawater any more than current wind turbines, and it looks like it could accumulate a LOT of barnacle growth before it would need to be cleaned out. The one in op's post seems like it'd be an easily clogged nightmare and the turbine is running in seawater.
This is essentially a floating in-air converter, a concept that’s been explored many times in different forms. Wave-energy harvesting tends to reappear every few decades, attract attention, and then fade away again. Salter’s Duck is a well-known historical example among many similar devices.
Why do I get the sneaking suspicion this either doesn't generate much electricity or is otherwise wildly inefficient for cost-to-watt compared to other "green" options?
We've had wave generators for ages. We don't use them for the same reason we won't use this. In general, the future is not huge electricity parks, but using every chance to capture green energy. Especially since A LOT is lost in transfer. So, solar on every roof, edge generators on tall buildings, geothermal heat - hell, a small turbine in the drainpipe.
Broadly correct, but picking on the last bit I remember seeing a video of a guy who tried to build an optimized turbine for his home downspout and it was, bluntly, a waste of time. The power generated was so little (like 5W using his hose to ensure constant high flow) it would never make up the investment in the parts. What I have also seen is a device that uses vanes and surface tension to remove debris for water storage. Using that to fill grey water like toilets would probably be much better.
I totally disagree, especially if the plan is to a)convert existing systems away from fossil fuels and b)uplift the billions of people who don't have access to reliable power, then large scale is the only solution.
The simple fact is that larger systems are way more efficient than small systems. Large solar fields that are properly aligned will always out produce resi/small scale installs. This is also including any of the transmission losses, especially with the newer conductors that are /
/waiting to be installed. This becomes even more relevant when you adjust for latitude, weather, and obstructions. Large Grids will be the solution to these issues, especially when planning for Climate Change causing "weird weather". The ability to transmit power from a southern desert to a northern forest community, will always be better for everyone who needs power.
Which is the other key: universal access to electricity. Your system is great for people/communities with "fk you got mine" /
/amounts of resources that allow them to be independent. You do realize that not every community has that type of resources, right? Heck, most places do not get enough sunlight/wind to power homes, let alone industrial systems. It's not much different than the "all food should be local"-movement. It's so oblivious to reality that it's bordering of sociopathic. Large Scale Grids protect Humanity. Large scale power reduces total resource consumption and maximizes power production, while being /
/able to provide universal access to that power. A silver mine community isn't growing safe foods. It is rarely even going to have enough power to run the machinery. And without silver, there are no solar panels. The Grid and large scale power in other areas, makes it possible.
As an aside, edge power/small turbines in drains/small wind/etc are wastes of resources that will rarely ever produce enough power to cover the cost of energy required to build/transport/install/maintain. Because power /
/from nature is exponential not linear. A 2ft wide turbine doesn't produce 10% of the power of a 20ft blade. It's closer to 1% due to all other factors. This is why they use massive blades on Wind Power and they only put them in specific parts of the world.
Small is only good if you don't care about the rest of humanity nor how many holes you have to dig to get those resources. I recommend you read more engineering and less greenwashing from capitalists who want to sell you "solutions".
Transmission line losses are not that significant, and they're worse at the small lower-voltage areas like solar roofs and small sources. A small turbine in the drain pipe is going to be good for basically nothing. Power generation favors huge installations, and always will.
I don't like people using "unlimited" for an energy producing medium. While the source is indeed unlimited (at least as long as we have wave and oceans), the collecting medium has a lifespan and a limited output .
That said, it's nice to see additional thing to get us out of fossil fuel. I can only hope they put more of those in use in the near future.
This is useless because it can't take over the entirety of fossil fuel energy production overnight. We should scrap the whole thing. Maybe we can talk about it in 30 years when I, personally, am no longer making money from fossil fuels. /S
In this case, the collecting mediums lifespan will be short. Sea water is horribly corrosive - there have been loads of sea water renewable tests around Scotland and the Orkney islands, and the biggest issue is how fast things corrode - they are genuinely great at power generation, but the more energy they can produce (which means the more violent the natural element they are using), the shorter the life.
There's yet to be one of these wave generation systems that's proven reliable and commercially viable. Ocean is way too violent, unpredictable and tough on materials.
it doesnt matter if its wind, tides, currents or waves, all those movements exists for a reason, if you drain energy from them you slow them down, which somehow somewhere has unintended consequences...also ocean surface is finite...so it cant be unlimited energy...anchoring that thing on the ground also is definitely invasive...also you gotta get the energy to where you need it so cables need to be attached which are also invasive...and if that energy is clean is another question entirely, that>
> thing needs to be built, maintained, repaired and eventually disposed, it has mechanical parts and being in the ocean inevitably will have critters start growing on it, so it will need to be cleaned or it will clog...how are the crews getting there? by ship with a nice diesel engine of course...i appreciate the innovative idea, but that entire video is just buzzwords that arent actually true...<<<
I don't think of the term 'unlimited' in the literal sense when used in marketing. It's to purvey a concept, and not in a literal sense. If we want to be pedantic then we can start questioning whether or not 'unlimited' as a concept even exists to begin with, so it's kind of nit-picky to get hooked up on that word. We have many words that we use that need to be interpreted based on context, rather than according to a dictionary.
Its an argument of semantics. A lot of "unlimited" energy systems are actually just bs pseudo science. The complaint here is that the energy source here is unlimited (as far as it matters) but thr term Unlimited throws it in with "free electricity devices sold by con artists"
"clean" must include construction, installation, maintenance, cleaning, repairs and disposal of the device, so its guaranteed not clean...and also not "unlimited", you can only drain enough energy from some movement to make it stop completely at best, so its limited by how strong the waves are at the installation site, also ocean surface is definitely limited...its just buzzwords that dont hold under critical inspection...
I agree that the term "renewable" is preferable to "unlimited", which is the point anyway: The process of harnessing the energy does not irreparably diminish its source. But as for "clean", I would argue that the process of generating energy should be the main criteria, since all other ways of generating produce an equal or greater amount of pollution in construction, maintenance etc. By all means take it into account, but the process of generation still doesn't pollute in itself.
"renewable" is also sketchy because we cant renew it ourselves, unlike eg biodiesel or something where we can grow more rape seeds or whatever to get more of it...even worse when they call solar energy "renewable", like we could refill the sun once it burns out...why cant we just use correct words?...and when it comes to "clean" all the surrounding parts i meantioned do matter a lot, in the same way that for electric vehicles it matter how lithium is mined and how the electricity is generated...
Sure, the surrounding parts matter, but they matter less if they are worse on the alternatives anyway. As for "renewable" being inaccurate, fair enough - I propose "practically endless" or "self renewing" (unlike e.g. biodiesel). For "clean", I agree, that's factually incorrect. How about "clean compared to the alternatives"?
Oh right this would in theory take some energy out of the tides which gets energy from the orbital mechanics of the moon. In theory if we could steal enough of that energy over a long enough time span we could make the moon fall back to earth I think? Not a practical concern but a fun hypothetical
it won't die, it'll just move past its available hydrogen, things will get interesting, the I'm glad I won't be around to see it kindof interesting. It's too small to explode so it won't be dead, just another phase.
Ehhh White Dwarfs are commonly refered to as stellar remnants or dead stars... but yea the sun will stick around for a verrrryyy long time in that form providing it doesnt crash into anything interesting when Andromeda collides with the Milky Way around the same time
I bet you could. There’s tons of support for the idea that rodents (and a lot of different animals as well) will utilize excercise wheels when those wheels are left in their natural environment. Now getting enough to use them so that the current is steady / maintained is the real issue.
If you're saying that you won't bother to find out for yourself then yeah, possibly. Oddly enough, applying the scientific method to find your answer WILL actually make your dick bigger. It's the only thing that works tbh.
The energy is never ending. The life span of the tool to use the energy doesn't determine the amount of energy capable of being harvested.
You're being pedantic in a useless way.
Cool idea though. While I'm here I'll say I had an idea similar or inspired by similar but expanded to churn deep water cool water up to surface level warm water.
The idea being if you had a grid of these you could cool temps of the ocean surface before hitting land during hurricane seasons.
I mean at the very least, it can produce power to run stuff like wifi/mobile nodes, so ships can use them for location, can monitor oceans without worries about solar working, etc. Sadly, yea the idea of wireless energy (and battery transfers) kinda limit it, but it does allow for power supplied to the things directly using it.
To some degree true for sure but if you make a huge-ass park in the middle of the ocean it's not that much extra to pull one cable out there and connect to the system out there, while windmills generally is close to shores due to needing a fundament which is MUCH cheaper on low waters
Floating foundation wind turbines do exist, so turbines don't exclusively use sea floor foundations anymore. But yeah, floating turbines are vastly more expensive than traditional ones, that's true
1. That would have to a very thick heavy cable to transmit the megawatts of power needed to make it worthwhile. 2. Those turbines are not moving consistently and definitely not fast enough to generate kilovolts, so a separate floating substation would be needed to not only rectify the voltage fluctuations but also step up the voltage high enough for long range transmission. And we all know how well electronics and salt water mix.
You think they aren't already using thick, heavy cables for wind farms? The largest turbines can produce 26 megawatts from ONE turbine. If you have an offshore wind farm with 100+ turbines, you bet your ass they have multiple MASSIVE cables.
Yes. Either on land, which doesn’t really move, or in areas shallow enough to support off shore wind turbines. Think <200 feet of depth. Laying a cable on the seabed at those depths isn’t hugely difficult.
If one of the main selling points of this tech is that it can be placed in waters too deep for offshore wind farms then you’re talking off the continental shelves. That’s THOUSANDS of feet deep.
The "continental shelf" is a North American feature, meaning there's a fuckton of other places these could be used without laying a cable thousands of feet deep.. And there are plenty of places offshore of the US that are too deep for turbines, but not thousands of feet deep.
And, laying a cable a mile deep is nothing these days. Seriously. Absolutely fucking nothing. There are 13 trans-Atlantic cables in use right now. Those are four thousand miles long, at depths up to 12,500 feet or more.
Reuse oil rigs as a central point to connect, monitor, maintain, and deploy them. Already well developed for staff to live there for extended periods, plenty of space to store replacement parts and any other maintenance materials and equipment
looks like their main source of revenue is DOD https://www.vigormarine.com/ Portland Company Builds First Of Its Kind Renewable Wave Energy Device https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-manufacturing-company-vigor-wave-energy-device/
Ya the DOD used to fund a bunch of innovative shit cuz oddly enough being at the cutting edge meant better tech across a lot of different arenas cuz the problems solved for things like this are generally translatable. Then we got the current crop of…people…and, well, now we do things the hard way.
having lived near ocean in warm climates, playing on the beach shore break, just a 1/2' wave will smack u upside the body with force u cannot imagine. a 1' wave will break your bones if u don't know what you're doing. i just can't believe this kinetic energy hasn't been harnessed. when GOP reagan stole the WH the first thing he did was rip down Dem Carter's solar panels and US went 100% oil/fossil fuel hindering eco energy decades and now china EU lead.
most of the tech we have today is/was discovered/created by LIBERAL scientists at Universities. same as the best medical treatments in US r at the LIBERAL University hospitals. even before the liberal U scientist get their hands/ideas on things the BASIC research is done by LIBERAL University Scientists! Liberal states Made/Funded US a Superpower! 1900 - 1970 NY, IL. 1940 - 2026 CA. CA + NY should have 40 US Senators!
Of all the potential applications of powerbeaming, connecting offshore power generators to terrestrial grids is not one of them. Powerbeaming is not considered a practical solution for large-scale, long-distance power transmission, especially in regions with variable weather conditions that degrade or completely disrupt the transmission.
You're being down voted because everyone over 20 has heard of these and knows better. It's not a new concept in any way and especially that company has zero innovations on the idea. I really can't stress how embarrassing it is for how you worded your comment. Please, apply critical thinking in the future. It's on you to understand what you're sharing with others before you do so.
Not all human knowledge. Just energy systems. But I'm certainly flattered. Next time you get excited about a fake/ unrealistic tech like solar roads, perpetual energy, or anything that seems magical, gimme a call and I'll help.
Not necessarily impossible just incredibly inefficient. Think wirelessly charging a phone, that already has quite a bit of loss, a tradeoff of energy consumption vs convenience. At any greater distance, that power requirement grows exponentially. Thats basically the idea Nikola Tesla had for wireless energy.
Directly beaming to target could increase efficiency, but at best theres still going to be a huge loss .
So impractical, inefficient, improbable, not impossible
I recently saw a headline about solar panels being built in space and somehow "beaming" the energy back to Earth. I did not read the article so I don't know if it is theoretical or in practice but it seems a similar technology could be used if it exists.
Microwave energy transmission has been a thing for decades, but it’s horribly inefficient. Also, as you might imagine, aiming a focused beam of megawatts of microwave energy from space at a point on the planet is gonna cause issues for anything that strays into its path. Like birds. Or people.
I remember building a structure to generate power in SimCity 2000 that was based on this. It had a chance of causing fires around it, explained by the energy beam "missing".
There are massive cables stretching across entire oceans. Running power cable on the ocean shore back to shore just like they do with wind mills wouldn't be an issue.
It would still very much be an issue. Sure, maintaining on cable isn't that big a deal, but now you'd have probably tens of thousands of them, and maintaining all that is going to be a big issue.
Those cables are stationary. These cables would be flexing up and down non-stop. Meaning constant replacement before fatigue breaks occur. These aren't cheap cables either. It's a real problem that needs addressing if you want to keep the cost/kW comparable to current power generation options.
Really? Cool. So, deep ocean. Thousands of miles, hundreds or thousands of bobbing giant spheres being weighed down or constrained by cables. Cool cool. Lots and lots of ships and people to fix all the fucked up multiple thousands of miles of cable. Oh, and all the fucking ground stations to feed and regulate all that awesome power. It was a good question and you tossed it away like you had all the answers. So. Tell me how it will fucking work and how it will make economic sense to do.
It works exactly like a Fishing Red/white bobber and a boat. There is a single platform and a few of the bobbers are spread out like a web. The cables Float ON TOP of the water and are connected to the Anchored Wire system(red straps on ball in video). The bobber does its thing and transmits energy/data to the main platform. no underwater cables, no ocean floor anchors.
They are placed pretty far out and have a Distance threshold in case this does happen, in which case the platform will have boats to reposition them. I have to preface this but this is a prototype. The actual platform design does not exist and is generally constructed by the companies that will use these things. Additionally these things are 60 meters long and will not be placed in major or especially deep areas. This is not a Leave in place thing like wind turbines.
leslaron
This is 100% powered by the snail and you can’t convince me otherwise
certainlynotaserialkiller
and its beyond stupid and does not scale. just like the previous 200 times they tried this.
stonecoldstevebuschemi
This is what we are doing. This is humanity. Technology. Bueno.
StarscreamAndHutch
YellowMellowFellowlevel
Now have them come with trash collection as well
JarJarDrinks
Don't they have to be close enough to shore for power cables to reach them?
DustinJL
*Internet cables have entered the chat*
ByThePowerOfSCIENCE
Internet cables don't carry much power - just enough for the fiber optic repeaters.
One solution to help reduce losses from long cables is raising the voltage. A converter would take the power from several nearby generators and send HVDC to shore.
davemUnderscoreOr
Every time you remove energy from a system you alter the system. Calling it 'clean' just means you don't understand how you're altering the system. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. Just that you don't know what you're doing quite yet.
senyu
Some "Can entropy be reversed?" comic vibes here.
popeyeNL
The cables needed to bring the power to shore and the anchors needed to keep this device in one place do have a big impact on marine life. Anchor chains and cables need to be replaced after 25 years or so.
The good thing is that the device acts like an artificial reef, attracting fish and other sealife. And trawlers cannot fish there so the seafloor is safe as well
xxxnaked
eselsaft
As a subaea engineer: Maintenance, mooring and drift off, getting power onshore, cost of construction, power output. It's a great idea, but not without risks.
fknbastard
Good. Put your data centers out there. It will also cool em off and not use local water.
donorkort
I will never fully understand how seeing an ad for something and then making a superficial video about said ad can be a way of life.
kraquepype
Ya buoy
XEtAl
This is the kind of stuff that drives my motivation to get my degree in engineering. This stuff is so damn cool, and I would give anything to be able to work alongside the minds that make it possible.
charondaboatman
Here. Here’s what and how it does what it does. https://youtu.be/">JKbI">https://youtu.be/Q7Pmgq2JKbI https://panthalassa.com
Irishtrailrunner
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aTRnZjZiZXlucGpoeXZqYzU0aTQ2a3BvaGU0emIycDNvZ2V0bmxxNCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/LxPsfUhFxwRRC/200w.webp
JadeMcLeod
People will really promote anything to avoid the topic of how cheap and sustainable solar energy has become.
Don't get me wrong, this is cool and could have potential for powering long-term research in the open ocean where solar or wind isn't possible, but it's ridiculous to assert that hundreds of these are a better solution than like, ONE wind turbine.
Waves and tides unfortunately just don't have a lot of energy to capture. This would be like proposing we put water wheels in bathtub drains.
senyu
Water wheels im bathtub drains you say? Why, with a large enough city, we could get so much power! Now I need to just find investors
Drylegs
If we can turn that little fly sticker on the urinals into a piss turbine future generations will write songs about us.
AlexSomething
"How it works makes a lot of sense" it sure does when hydropower has been used for millennia and hydroelectricity for more than a century.
BlastyMcBlastblast
how do they manage the barnacles? because i hear that stuff in the ocean often gets stuff growing on/in it...
colderfish
Yeah, I have an old boat in the marina and I pay a kid with a scuba set $60 4 times a year to scrape the barnacles and seaweed off the hull. Still, windmills and big sea bouys seem to be ok. I suppose this would work even if covered in barnacles
whatsisname
Windmills and bouys don't have their critical moving parts all barnacled up. These do, and barnacles and mussels and stuff have long been a continued problem for mechanical systems on oceans.
hgfurgyhauh4uhghghuhgiqguhniij
The inside of that is perfect for any filter feeders.
RaxianTheta
we coat the outside of it in promos for the milania movie, that should stop them.
RummageSaleBubbler
Some guy's job is to go in to the turbines and clean them.
certainlynotaserialkiller
thats no a problem, its scrapped as soon as the investor funds run out. and that happens WAY sooner than barnacles can collect.
cbale2000
Oh there's no way this is cost effective or scalable in any practical way. The maintenance costs alone are probably immense.
TheFastpaws
The thing is the corrosion being in the saltwater 24/7. That was always the issue with this form of power and last I checked we had not solved that issue.
Evenmoreuselessname
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehT-ZTHFGg I rather like this design, although it requires a seafloor mount. The box is made of relatively cheap concrete, and the turbine doesn't contact the seawater any more than current wind turbines, and it looks like it could accumulate a LOT of barnacle growth before it would need to be cleaned out. The one in op's post seems like it'd be an easily clogged nightmare and the turbine is running in seawater.
nukemall
The sailing community calls these "hazards to navigation."
Zapathasura
This is essentially a floating in-air converter, a concept that’s been explored many times in different forms. Wave-energy harvesting tends to reappear every few decades, attract attention, and then fade away again. Salter’s Duck is a well-known historical example among many similar devices.
enotrevo
Mmmmm Salter's Duck.
Zapathasura
Not that kind of Duck.
enotrevo
:(
Capybellie
And the answer why it's usually not working out is always the same: Saltwater
Zapathasura
Yup. Pretty much.
CPTBRUMBL3Z
Why do I get the sneaking suspicion this either doesn't generate much electricity or is otherwise wildly inefficient for cost-to-watt compared to other "green" options?
Stanistani
Status: https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Devices/Ocean-2
TheNotGreatDane
We've had wave generators for ages. We don't use them for the same reason we won't use this. In general, the future is not huge electricity parks, but using every chance to capture green energy. Especially since A LOT is lost in transfer. So, solar on every roof, edge generators on tall buildings, geothermal heat - hell, a small turbine in the drainpipe.
WarThunderLeakedMySpecs
Broadly correct, but picking on the last bit I remember seeing a video of a guy who tried to build an optimized turbine for his home downspout and it was, bluntly, a waste of time. The power generated was so little (like 5W using his hose to ensure constant high flow) it would never make up the investment in the parts.
What I have also seen is a device that uses vanes and surface tension to remove debris for water storage. Using that to fill grey water like toilets would probably be much better.
freshthrowaway1138
I totally disagree, especially if the plan is to a)convert existing systems away from fossil fuels and b)uplift the billions of people who don't have access to reliable power, then large scale is the only solution.
The simple fact is that larger systems are way more efficient than small systems. Large solar fields that are properly aligned will always out produce resi/small scale installs. This is also including any of the transmission losses, especially with the newer conductors that are /
freshthrowaway1138
/waiting to be installed. This becomes even more relevant when you adjust for latitude, weather, and obstructions. Large Grids will be the solution to these issues, especially when planning for Climate Change causing "weird weather". The ability to transmit power from a southern desert to a northern forest community, will always be better for everyone who needs power.
Which is the other key: universal access to electricity. Your system is great for people/communities with "fk you got mine" /
freshthrowaway1138
/amounts of resources that allow them to be independent. You do realize that not every community has that type of resources, right? Heck, most places do not get enough sunlight/wind to power homes, let alone industrial systems. It's not much different than the "all food should be local"-movement. It's so oblivious to reality that it's bordering of sociopathic. Large Scale Grids protect Humanity. Large scale power reduces total resource consumption and maximizes power production, while being /
freshthrowaway1138
/able to provide universal access to that power. A silver mine community isn't growing safe foods. It is rarely even going to have enough power to run the machinery. And without silver, there are no solar panels. The Grid and large scale power in other areas, makes it possible.
As an aside, edge power/small turbines in drains/small wind/etc are wastes of resources that will rarely ever produce enough power to cover the cost of energy required to build/transport/install/maintain. Because power /
freshthrowaway1138
/from nature is exponential not linear. A 2ft wide turbine doesn't produce 10% of the power of a 20ft blade. It's closer to 1% due to all other factors. This is why they use massive blades on Wind Power and they only put them in specific parts of the world.
Small is only good if you don't care about the rest of humanity nor how many holes you have to dig to get those resources. I recommend you read more engineering and less greenwashing from capitalists who want to sell you "solutions".
jt42
Until someone sticks a banana in your drainpipe. - Sorry, very old reference.
whatsisname
Transmission line losses are not that significant, and they're worse at the small lower-voltage areas like solar roofs and small sources. A small turbine in the drain pipe is going to be good for basically nothing. Power generation favors huge installations, and always will.
BackToTheOriginalUsername
I don't like people using "unlimited" for an energy producing medium.
While the source is indeed unlimited (at least as long as we have wave and oceans), the collecting medium has a lifespan and a limited output .
That said, it's nice to see additional thing to get us out of fossil fuel. I can only hope they put more of those in use in the near future.
WarlockWithNoPatron
This is useless because it can't take over the entirety of fossil fuel energy production overnight. We should scrap the whole thing. Maybe we can talk about it in 30 years when I, personally, am no longer making money from fossil fuels. /S
0570
Also, unless they manage a near 100% efficient methods of moving the generated power, cables will be put on the sea floor, right across ecosystems
NairouTryyshokk
But then how will i use this gif? https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1ZjF4MHNqcWQ3MmQ3Z2lnbWtzYjF0czdiN3NmZ2YwYnZyaDZieGJtZyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/hokMyu1PAKfJK/200w.webp
SirRichfield
Unlimited* *(As long as we have a moon orbiting the earth**) **(And, of course, it doesn't break down.)
fester9
Wave action is generated by wind, tides are generated by the moon.
nclu
Pretty dope way to harvest energy from the moon, tbh
wazeewa
Just another marketing term
CrumpetsWithHoneyAreCrumpetsWithBeeVomit
Unlimited until the oceans dry up. And that is finite. Thus limited. QED.
Evi1Gav
In this case, the collecting mediums lifespan will be short. Sea water is horribly corrosive - there have been loads of sea water renewable tests around Scotland and the Orkney islands, and the biggest issue is how fast things corrode - they are genuinely great at power generation, but the more energy they can produce (which means the more violent the natural element they are using), the shorter the life.
BrdCdn
There's yet to be one of these wave generation systems that's proven reliable and commercially viable. Ocean is way too violent, unpredictable and tough on materials.
pompoikpoik
I like better this solution which seems less subject to corrosive water https://corpowerocean.com/
3ifish
I can speculate there is a fish kill issue attached to the design, potentially fouling the turbines. Hope not, but nature finds a way.
RecurringNightmare
it doesnt matter if its wind, tides, currents or waves, all those movements exists for a reason, if you drain energy from them you slow them down, which somehow somewhere has unintended consequences...also ocean surface is finite...so it cant be unlimited energy...anchoring that thing on the ground also is definitely invasive...also you gotta get the energy to where you need it so cables need to be attached which are also invasive...and if that energy is clean is another question entirely, that>
RecurringNightmare
> thing needs to be built, maintained, repaired and eventually disposed, it has mechanical parts and being in the ocean inevitably will have critters start growing on it, so it will need to be cleaned or it will clog...how are the crews getting there? by ship with a nice diesel engine of course...i appreciate the innovative idea, but that entire video is just buzzwords that arent actually true...<<<
HappyBucket
I don't think of the term 'unlimited' in the literal sense when used in marketing. It's to purvey a concept, and not in a literal sense. If we want to be pedantic then we can start questioning whether or not 'unlimited' as a concept even exists to begin with, so it's kind of nit-picky to get hooked up on that word. We have many words that we use that need to be interpreted based on context, rather than according to a dictionary.
OkButWhyWereTheyFilming
The energy is clean and unlimited, which is what the video said specifically. It doesn't say that the collection device has no lifespan.
CptRobotNinja
It's clean. It's not unlimited. It provides a steady, finite source of power for the foreseeable future. That's not unlimited, that's just reliable
Jinxer13
"This floating ball is creating free unlimited energy just by bobbing in the ocean " The ball is in fact not creating unlimited energy
BigRobbo
Its an argument of semantics. A lot of "unlimited" energy systems are actually just bs pseudo science. The complaint here is that the energy source here is unlimited (as far as it matters) but thr term Unlimited throws it in with "free electricity devices sold by con artists"
RecurringNightmare
"clean" must include construction, installation, maintenance, cleaning, repairs and disposal of the device, so its guaranteed not clean...and also not "unlimited", you can only drain enough energy from some movement to make it stop completely at best, so its limited by how strong the waves are at the installation site, also ocean surface is definitely limited...its just buzzwords that dont hold under critical inspection...
TheMuellmann
I agree that the term "renewable" is preferable to "unlimited", which is the point anyway: The process of harnessing the energy does not irreparably diminish its source. But as for "clean", I would argue that the process of generating energy should be the main criteria, since all other ways of generating produce an equal or greater amount of pollution in construction, maintenance etc. By all means take it into account, but the process of generation still doesn't pollute in itself.
RecurringNightmare
"renewable" is also sketchy because we cant renew it ourselves, unlike eg biodiesel or something where we can grow more rape seeds or whatever to get more of it...even worse when they call solar energy "renewable", like we could refill the sun once it burns out...why cant we just use correct words?...and when it comes to "clean" all the surrounding parts i meantioned do matter a lot, in the same way that for electric vehicles it matter how lithium is mined and how the electricity is generated...
TheMuellmann
Sure, the surrounding parts matter, but they matter less if they are worse on the alternatives anyway. As for "renewable" being inaccurate, fair enough - I propose "practically endless" or "self renewing" (unlike e.g. biodiesel). For "clean", I agree, that's factually incorrect. How about "clean compared to the alternatives"?
yeahhedugit
Exactly. People tend to nitpick semantically to make their penises bigger. The source of the energy is unlimited. That's the point.
nclu
idk, in 50 billion years the moon is scheduled to be tidally locked with the Earth. Hopefully we find an alternative by then.
hoefty
Oh right this would in theory take some energy out of the tides which gets energy from the orbital mechanics of the moon. In theory if we could steal enough of that energy over a long enough time span we could make the moon fall back to earth I think? Not a practical concern but a fun hypothetical
BigRobbo
I mean we only have about 5 Billion years before the sun dies so we better get a rush on, no?
akafluffy
it won't die, it'll just move past its available hydrogen, things will get interesting, the I'm glad I won't be around to see it kindof interesting. It's too small to explode so it won't be dead, just another phase.
BigRobbo
Ehhh White Dwarfs are commonly refered to as stellar remnants or dead stars... but yea the sun will stick around for a verrrryyy long time in that form providing it doesnt crash into anything interesting when Andromeda collides with the Milky Way around the same time
choppedliveraldente
New York has a rat problem..... why can't we hamster wheel our way out of at least one city's problem.
req4adream99
I bet you could. There’s tons of support for the idea that rodents (and a lot of different animals as well) will utilize excercise wheels when those wheels are left in their natural environment. Now getting enough to use them so that the current is steady / maintained is the real issue.
choppedliveraldente
Offer them drugs
nik282000
When you're trying to sell an alternative to oil to people who think an F-35,000,000 pickup will make their dick bigger, you can just make shit up.
Thatguyfromtheotherday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI7Tq6sRxE4
DamnThursdays
"This gas station boner pill makes you harder, longer, n' smarter while y'fug"
- Cletus Dautereive III, probably.
NotRustyShackleford
Are you saying it won’t make my dick bigger?
ArcherPointingFromTheComments
If you're saying that you won't bother to find out for yourself then yeah, possibly. Oddly enough, applying the scientific method to find your answer WILL actually make your dick bigger. It's the only thing that works tbh.
BHPaperstacks
It will make YOU a bigger dick.
MacTually
The energy is never ending. The life span of the tool to use the energy doesn't determine the amount of energy capable of being harvested.
You're being pedantic in a useless way.
Cool idea though. While I'm here I'll say I had an idea similar or inspired by similar but expanded to churn deep water cool water up to surface level warm water.
The idea being if you had a grid of these you could cool temps of the ocean surface before hitting land during hurricane seasons.
No clue the math.
Metalsmith21
1. Nattering about having waves and oceans is dumb as hell because we'd all be dead.
2. The collecting medium's "lifespan and limited output" is the about the same as every other energy extraction device.
KittyKlimt6
One thing missing though is what will get us out of fossil fuel is that we reduce consumption. And punish billionaires companies if they don't.
WillLickNudibranchsForBUzz
but... I doubt they are cordless, so close to shore is better and cheaper..
pompoikpoik
Will always be tough to generate cordless electricity....
Thneitis
Battery ships. That way, we spend some oil making the power
KillingTlme
ExxonMobil approved
IhopeUgetwhatUvoted4
They could be cordless. Send the power through emitters to satilites and back to a station on the ground.
AtmaDarkwolf
I mean at the very least, it can produce power to run stuff like wifi/mobile nodes, so ships can use them for location, can monitor oceans without worries about solar working, etc. Sadly, yea the idea of wireless energy (and battery transfers) kinda limit it, but it does allow for power supplied to the things directly using it.
rowzdowr
Yeah, I had the same thought. Still not impossible, but there are a lot of variables this short clip doesn't come close to addressing.
Mohareb
To some degree true for sure but if you make a huge-ass park in the middle of the ocean it's not that much extra to pull one cable out there and connect to the system out there, while windmills generally is close to shores due to needing a fundament which is MUCH cheaper on low waters
SOCHE666
Floating foundation wind turbines do exist, so turbines don't exclusively use sea floor foundations anymore. But yeah, floating turbines are vastly more expensive than traditional ones, that's true
fester9
1. That would have to a very thick heavy cable to transmit the megawatts of power needed to make it worthwhile. 2. Those turbines are not moving consistently and definitely not fast enough to generate kilovolts, so a separate floating substation would be needed to not only rectify the voltage fluctuations but also step up the voltage high enough for long range transmission. And we all know how well electronics and salt water mix.
CallMeCourierSix
You think they aren't already using thick, heavy cables for wind farms? The largest turbines can produce 26 megawatts from ONE turbine. If you have an offshore wind farm with 100+ turbines, you bet your ass they have multiple MASSIVE cables.
fester9
Yes. Either on land, which doesn’t really move, or in areas shallow enough to support off shore wind turbines. Think <200 feet of depth. Laying a cable on the seabed at those depths isn’t hugely difficult.
If one of the main selling points of this tech is that it can be placed in waters too deep for offshore wind farms then you’re talking off the continental shelves. That’s THOUSANDS of feet deep.
CallMeCourierSix
The "continental shelf" is a North American feature, meaning there's a fuckton of other places these could be used without laying a cable thousands of feet deep.. And there are plenty of places offshore of the US that are too deep for turbines, but not thousands of feet deep.
And, laying a cable a mile deep is nothing these days. Seriously. Absolutely fucking nothing. There are 13 trans-Atlantic cables in use right now. Those are four thousand miles long, at depths up to 12,500 feet or more.
Evi1Gav
Transmission loss means anything beyond 1000km becomes pointless. So it really means, what do they consider "close to shore".
CallMeCourierSix
A typical offshore wind farm is 30km.
1000 km would be a VAST improvement.
Stop being obtuse and actually look things up.
darkninja2992
Reuse oil rigs as a central point to connect, monitor, maintain, and deploy them. Already well developed for staff to live there for extended periods, plenty of space to store replacement parts and any other maintenance materials and equipment
Timesarrows
looks like their main source of revenue is DOD https://www.vigormarine.com/ Portland Company Builds First Of Its Kind Renewable Wave Energy Device https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-manufacturing-company-vigor-wave-energy-device/
CallMeCourierSix
You say this like it's evil or something. At least it's military funding used for renewable energy instead of bombs for killing kids in Gaza.
JFC, you see the acronym "DoD" and start frothing at the mouth.
req4adream99
Ya the DOD used to fund a bunch of innovative shit cuz oddly enough being at the cutting edge meant better tech across a lot of different arenas cuz the problems solved for things like this are generally translatable. Then we got the current crop of…people…and, well, now we do things the hard way.
Timesarrows
having lived near ocean in warm climates, playing on the beach shore break, just a 1/2' wave will smack u upside the body with force u cannot imagine. a 1' wave will break your bones if u don't know what you're doing. i just can't believe this kinetic energy hasn't been harnessed. when GOP reagan stole the WH the first thing he did was rip down Dem Carter's solar panels and US went 100% oil/fossil fuel hindering eco energy decades and now china EU lead.
Timesarrows
most of the tech we have today is/was discovered/created by LIBERAL scientists at Universities. same as the best medical treatments in US r at the LIBERAL University hospitals. even before the liberal U scientist get their hands/ideas on things the BASIC research is done by LIBERAL University Scientists! Liberal states Made/Funded US a Superpower! 1900 - 1970 NY, IL. 1940 - 2026 CA. CA + NY should have 40 US Senators!
Pistolstar86
There is tech that is being experimented on for transferring energy through the air. They made a successful run of it.
https://spacevoyageventures.com/power-beaming/
gablestout
Of all the potential applications of powerbeaming, connecting offshore power generators to terrestrial grids is not one of them. Powerbeaming is not considered a practical solution for large-scale, long-distance power transmission, especially in regions with variable weather conditions that degrade or completely disrupt the transmission.
mike13815
You're being down voted because everyone over 20 has heard of these and knows better. It's not a new concept in any way and especially that company has zero innovations on the idea. I really can't stress how embarrassing it is for how you worded your comment. Please, apply critical thinking in the future. It's on you to understand what you're sharing with others before you do so.
gablestout
Pistolstar86
Ok. Your opinion is noted. I didn't know you held the statistics for all human knowledge. Apologies my liege.
mike13815
Not all human knowledge. Just energy systems. But I'm certainly flattered. Next time you get excited about a fake/ unrealistic tech like solar roads, perpetual energy, or anything that seems magical, gimme a call and I'll help.
bottledham
Interesting link thanks for sharing. Even though I'm skeptical they could scale it up to the size needed to carry grid power, it's still cool ideas.
NoCapForRealForReal
Physics makes this impossible in an real world setting
Z0op
Not necessarily impossible just incredibly inefficient. Think wirelessly charging a phone, that already has quite a bit of loss, a tradeoff of energy consumption vs convenience. At any greater distance, that power requirement grows exponentially. Thats basically the idea Nikola Tesla had for wireless energy.
Directly beaming to target could increase efficiency, but at best theres still going to be a huge loss .
So impractical, inefficient, improbable, not impossible
zagibu
Wow, lasers and microwaves, so innovative!
gablestout
DrBourbonTheOriginal
I recently saw a headline about solar panels being built in space and somehow "beaming" the energy back to Earth. I did not read the article so I don't know if it is theoretical or in practice but it seems a similar technology could be used if it exists.
redpandabanana
In a nut shell about Dyson sphears
https://youtu.be/pP44EPBMb8A?si=qrYiGXfK5Kt-DnnI
RevRagnarok
I remember that disaster in SimCity!
TerminalInterface
and night city.
fester9
Microwave energy transmission has been a thing for decades, but it’s horribly inefficient. Also, as you might imagine, aiming a focused beam of megawatts of microwave energy from space at a point on the planet is gonna cause issues for anything that strays into its path. Like birds. Or people.
faphappyscreencappy
Cobra will use it to try and heat up a bunch of spore pods to blanket the earth in mutagens.
DrBourbonTheOriginal
Thank you, that's great information and great insight.
GeekyLurker
I remember building a structure to generate power in SimCity 2000 that was based on this. It had a chance of causing fires around it, explained by the energy beam "missing".
arikelrecords2000
But it might be useful if I want to cook a huge number of hotpockets
SidonisAntares
They’ll still be frozen in the center tho
Sethiusalpha
And the power gets back to land from the deep sea deployment how?
PixelSprite64
MAN9000
There are massive cables stretching across entire oceans. Running power cable on the ocean shore back to shore just like they do with wind mills wouldn't be an issue.
whatsisname
It would still very much be an issue. Sure, maintaining on cable isn't that big a deal, but now you'd have probably tens of thousands of them, and maintaining all that is going to be a big issue.
StarscreamAndHutch
Bluetooth
ClutterMonkey
Space magic and magnets.
newsguycraigevans
In this economy?
thricebakedxyz
Pretty sure the tide brings it in.
EvilMonkeyLvr
Cyberdyne forms Skynet and our future power problems are over.
YoureWaifuAShit
magic
Adester
The same way every other offshore electricity plant does reliably for decades now: cables
There are so many other points to criticize here and you choose the one that is a solved problem...
MAN9000
Lol so true.
GrumpyOldMan55
Bruh just asked a question and you went full douchebag. Who hurt you?
bubblesuit24601
It's ok to just answer a question ✌️
OmnesMundiLardum
Those cables are stationary. These cables would be flexing up and down non-stop. Meaning constant replacement before fatigue breaks occur. These aren't cheap cables either. It's a real problem that needs addressing if you want to keep the cost/kW comparable to current power generation options.
charondaboatman
Really? Cool. So, deep ocean. Thousands of miles, hundreds or thousands of bobbing giant spheres being weighed down or constrained by cables. Cool cool. Lots and lots of ships and people to fix all the fucked up multiple thousands of miles of cable. Oh, and all the fucking ground stations to feed and regulate all that awesome power. It was a good question and you tossed it away like you had all the answers. So. Tell me how it will fucking work and how it will make economic sense to do.
charondaboatman
Here. Here’s what and how it does what it does. https://youtu.be/">JKbI">https://youtu.be/Q7Pmgq2JKbI https://panthalassa.com
MoopsyLD
It works exactly like a Fishing Red/white bobber and a boat. There is a single platform and a few of the bobbers are spread out like a web. The cables Float ON TOP of the water and are connected to the Anchored Wire system(red straps on ball in video). The bobber does its thing and transmits energy/data to the main platform. no underwater cables, no ocean floor anchors.
StarscreamAndHutch
What keeps the bobbers away from the central anchor?
MoopsyLD
They are placed pretty far out and have a Distance threshold in case this does happen, in which case the platform will have boats to reposition them. I have to preface this but this is a prototype. The actual platform design does not exist and is generally constructed by the companies that will use these things. Additionally these things are 60 meters long and will not be placed in major or especially deep areas. This is not a Leave in place thing like wind turbines.