The Green Power of Buoyancy
I have often followed new developments in energy creation, among those being Wave Power and Wave Buoys, both of which harness the power of the water’s current.
In both instances the applications are very problematic or difficult to execute. Many of the designs I have seen look too ambitious to execute or maintain.
I created a simple design, where the vertical motion of a buoy is captured by a station affixed to a dry land structure that is adjacent to a body of water. This includes piers, sea walls, bridge foundations, or even cliff faces.
These can be placed at the water’s edge and are easily accessible. This would be ideal compared to having a station out at sea or tethered underwater.
These farms can be adjusted to accommodate the elevation changes in tide as well.
The best part? Because these stations aren’t submerged in water, you can place these in shallow depths. Anywhere that is exposed to regular wave currents.
Not being an engineer, I cannot estimate the power that can be generated, however this design allows for dense placement of these buoys, which is beneficial to overall output.
I would very much like to see these become a reality, strategically placed throughout harbors and ports of busy urban centers. What do you think?
Posted on May 5, 2010, in Uncategorized and tagged Energy, Environment, Technology. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
Fucking ingenious!
In all seriousness, get this concept out to real engineers (even if just college student engineers) and see what they can do with this concept.
I don’t see much energy being produced from one such device, but if designed in bunches, I think it’d be quite productive.
Yeah that’s the idea, to have entire farms of these lining the waterfront areas to produce a lot of electricity.
This post has yielded a lot of traffic from Googlers, many who seek it out by name (eg. Google search “Daves Ideas Buoyancy Power”) so it may have caught the eye of a few capable people out there.
I can broadcast ideas, but carrying them out is another matter.
I have actually been trying to submit this in the Pepsi Refresh Everything grant program. Tried 5 times, can’t seem to get my application in on time. Was hoping to land $ to hire smart people and build a working prototype. Will keep trying.
You are a genius.
The Wile E. Coyote type of genius, I would agree.
I even carry a small umbrella and a “Help!” sign on my person at all times.
Wave Buoy generation pales in comparison to wind or solar when you compare the cost of setup and upkeep to the energy produced. Concepts and one-off’s have been around for decades, but never approached practical competitive levels. The large waves are out at sea, not close to shore, so long transmission lines (underwater) are one problem of many. It actually makes more energy and costs less to anchor a large wind generator out at sea than a buoy system. Great idea, but you aren’t the first!
Never claimed to be the first, my idea was to have large-scale farms of these suckers along shorelines and other accessible locales. The idea being a larger volume of units would match the output of conventional green power harvesting. http://davesgeekyideas.com/2011/03/04/buoyancy-power-updated/ So these wouldn’t be dependent on wave size.
Because they are accessible and sit on dry land, the upkeep is much lower than remote stations, buoyed or underwater - precedent from which this was all derived.
Another commenter felt these would be more efficient using magnetic induction. So it’s within the realm of possibility, at least compared to faster-than-light travel.
hello Dave my name is Mr Sinclair. i mean no disrespect to the idea of wave power except i have done hundreds of buoyancy experiments and found that not enough power is produce but you are on the right path for the next energy source it is indeed the sea.
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