Not to be confused with the Gulf Stream, the Florida Current is a thermal ocean current that flows generally from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.
Underwater Turbines
Suppose, in order to harness its power, XYZ Technology™ installs 100 (one hundred) 300 kw (kilowatt) turbines on the ocean floor ten miles off the Florida coast. In doing so, the aforementioned utility is able to satisfy the total electric requirement of, say, 500,000 homes.
My question for you is this: Does the placement of those 100 turbines affect, to any significant degree, the “flow” of the Florida Current? Do the turbines, for example, stop the flow? Don’t be silly. Of course not. Will 100 turbines in any way diminish the flow? No. The Florida Current, unabated, a thousand times mightier than the Mississippi, will just keep right on “flowing” along! Continue reading »
Amid claims that it is the largest ocean turbine installation to date, U.K.-based Marine Current Turbines (MCT) has placed a 300-kilowatt (kW) turbine three kilometers off of the English coast.
Vertical Axis Turbine
With backing from stakeholders that include the U.K. and German governments, the European Commission’s Joule Program and a consortium of U.K. and German industrial companies, the so-called Seaflow project cost approximately U.S. $3.5 million. The project aims to test and perfect the turbine during the next three years, according to a June 30 article at SolarAccess.com. Continue reading »
It’s easy to track the tidal movements of the ocean by looking at waves, but all of that energy is moved around under the surface of the water as well. Florida Atlantic University’s Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology hopes to harness these underwater currents by placing 100-foot-in-diameter 20 kilowatt turbines that are anchored to the ocean floor along the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic. The system would be hooked up to floating generators and monitored by solar powered control buoys and small naval vessels. Continue reading »
One the world’s greatest untapped energy resources is the motion of the ocean. Of course, while floating wind turbines and wave-powered generators are being explored and researched, underwater ocean currents remains an area that is largely untapped.
Now researchers at the Center of Excellence in Ocean Energy Technology have developed a technology that would allow them to tap the Gulf Stream currents. This they believe would be able to cover all of Florida’s energy needs. These scientists are truly working hard to transform the vision from science fiction to reality. Continue reading »
Seawater is 800 times denser than air; hence water traveling at 12 mph exerts force comparable to a 110-mile wind. This power can successfully be harnessed, via turbine. Ocean current is of two types, two-way (ocean tides) and one-way (i.e., the Gulf Stream, for example) and can be used to generate electricity. Experts contend the Gulf Stream alone transports some 1.5 petawatts of heat, equivalent to 100 times the world energy demand. A tidal fence (between two land masses) can serve as a conduit for autos and trains (picture a high-speed bullet train linking Miami, Houston, and San Diego, for example). With regard to future water scarcity issues (rivers like the Colorado drying up, drought, etc.), a tidal fence could also be used for transporting desalinated water to shore.
(Tidal Energy).
The largest tidal power station in the world (and the only one in Europe) is in the Rance estuary in northern France, near St. Malo. It was built in 1966.
A major drawback of tidal power stations is that they can only generate when the tide is flowing in or out – in other words, only for 10 hours each day. However, tides are totally predictable, so we can plan to have other power stations generating at those times when the tidal station is out of action.
