

Underwater Kites Can Harness Ocean Currents to Create Clean Energy - aronvox
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/11/underwater-kites-can-harness-ocean-currents-to-create-clean-energy/

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saalweachter
This quote:

    
    
      “It has been estimated that the potential power from the
      Florida Current, which flows from the Gulf of Mexico into
      the Atlantic Ocean, is 20 gigawatts—equivalent to about 10
      nuclear power plants,” mechanical engineer David Olinger.
    

The scale of human industry is currently around 16 terawatts, so something on
the scale of 20 gigawatts is a drop in the bucket. The solution to all of our
energy needs this is not. That said, sure, deploy as many underwater kites as
you profitably can without adversely affecting the environment; every little
bit of power we generate renewably helps.

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kamakazizuru
I'd be really amazed if this doesn't disrupt the environment - im just
thinking of all those fish that will get affected - there's probably more
effects in terms of how it affects currents and so on (if a large amount of
these kites is put in a single area). Already you hear of wind turbines
killing birds, affecting winds etc.

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endersshadow
The UK and Ireland would be so pissed if we killed that current...so
pissed...and so, so cold...

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jmedwards
I wonder what the unintended consequences of taking energy out of such
currents would be to ocean wild life.

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lemongrass
"The SeaGen S system at Strangford Lough was subject to a rigorous 3-year
Environmental Monitoring Programme. The studies concluded that installation
and operation of the SeaGen system, together with the mitigation put in place,
has not had a significant impact on marine life at the site."

You can view the report here:
[http://www.marineturbines.com/sites/default/files/SeaGen-
Env...](http://www.marineturbines.com/sites/default/files/SeaGen-
Environmental-Monitoring-Programme-Final-Report.pdf)

~~~
wuschel
Yes, the potential and kinetic energy of the oceans is an amazing source of
energy.

I hope a 'rigorous 3 year' testing program is sufficient to justify a large
scale deployment of these platforms in different habitats. They do mention
that 'a few' of the metrics monitored showed naturally highly variable and
lacked the statistical power to confindently rule out undetected changes.
Also, I have the impression that they just checked the deployment of one
platform?

Did they also publish the data somewhere?

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jnotarstefano
There's also 40South Energy in this space: [http://www.40southenergy.com/wave-
energy-converters/the-tech...](http://www.40southenergy.com/wave-energy-
converters/the-technology/) (its founder was my linear algebra teacher).

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revelation
More, uhm, sophisticated designs are already in deployment:

[http://www.marineturbines.com/](http://www.marineturbines.com/)

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rschmitty
I kinda like the underwater Enterprise fleet!

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mixedbit
A physics puzzle: underwater turbines can generate energy from tides that are
mostly the effect of the Moon movement. Energy can not be created (energy
generated by the turbines needed to be lost somewhere). How the energy lost
manifests itself in this system?

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jbattle
I do know that orbits gradually decay - maybe that is the 'energy reserve' we
would be drawing down.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave#Orbital_deca...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave#Orbital_decay_from_gravitational_radiation)

