Clean Energy Harnessed From the Ocean
Amplify’d from cleantechnica.com
A completely new concept of underwater wave energy using a simple 7 ton kite turbine design has been developed by Minesto; which is a spinoff from the Swedish military and aircraft design firm Saab. The Deep Green underwater turbine captures the power of the ocean just like a kite in wind.
The system could generate 18 terawatthours of energy annually, enough to provide nearly 4 million British households with reliably green electricity every year. UK households now use about a third of what average US households use in energy.
Originally Saab was working on a kite design for a wind turbine, but found that the concept would actually work better in water, which is 832 times more dense than air.
The kite twirls in a repeating figure eight pattern (video) that increases the ocean velocity ten-fold.
The kite is mounted to the ocean bed with a tether and is controlled by a rudder to gently nudge it in the desired trajectory.Read more at cleantechnica.com
