Renewables let you have a more diverse set of energy inputs so you aren’t putting all your generation eggs in one basket. One type of renewable that doesn’t see a lot of love, despite 80% of the world’s population living within 100 km (~60 mi) of a coastline, is harnessing the energy of the tides. [via Electrek]
“The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that wave energy has the potential to generate over 1,400 terawatt-hours per year,” so while this initial project won’t be huge, the overall possible power generation from tidal power is nothing to sneeze at. Known more for its role in shipping fossil fuels, the Port of Los Angeles will host the new wave power pilot being built by Eco Wave Power and Shell. Eco Wave’s system uses floaters to drive pistons that compress hydraulic fluid and turn a generator before the decompressed fluid is returned to the pistons in a nice, tidy loop.
Eco Wave plans to finish construction by early 2025 and already has the power conversion unit onsite at the Port of Los Angeles. While the press release is mum on the planned install capacity, Eco Wave claims they will soon have 404.7 MW of installed capacity through several different pilot projects around the world.
We covered another Swiss company trying to harness tidal power with underwater kites, and if wave power isn’t your thing but you still like mixing water and electricity, why not try offshore wind or a floating solar farm? Just make sure to keep the noise down!
California should make a goal to scale a decentralized network of these across the state along side desalinization plants to become water independent.
I know the Eco Wave website talks about “compressing hydraulic fluid” but isn’t that stuff usually considered incompressible? That’s why it works to transmit force in a hydraulic system, I thought. Anyone with more knowledge about this kind of thing able to weigh in? Or are the forces involved big enough that it’s actually compressing the fluid?
compressing hydraulic fluid likely refers to one of two things,
1, the forced movement of hydraulic fluid by applying compressive force to a hydraulic cylinder
or
2. the storing of hydraulic fluid under pressure by driving it into an accumulator, a vessel designed with either mechanical or pneumatic compression elements.
The port of Los Angeles is behind a breakwater. Not much wave action. Maybe they don’t need much.
They are likely installing ALONG the breakwater AT the port of Los Angeles.
Decades ago people thought dams were a great idea. They produced power and prevented flooding. Some provided recreation in the constrained waters. Then people worried about fish migration. No problem, alternate paths were added. Then people said the natural process of flooding, being interrupted, was bad for the ecology. But by bit some dams were damned.
Now we want power from waves. The immediate result is that power comes from reduced wave heights. What, in the fullness of time, will “people” say about that effect ?
People can’t accept tradeoffs. They all want something for nothing. TANSTAAFL.