ANDREW FOSTER;293260 wrote:SF100;293253 wrote:ANDREW FOSTER;293227 wrote:1. The issue with waves (as opposed to tidal) is that they simple don't contain much energy to be harvested.
2. Equipment to do it has to be able to cope with salt water corrosion and serious storms that can damage both the kit and the flexible cable needed to extract the power.
3. The cost vs energy equation is inferior to tidal and way inferior to wind. Its the runt of the litter and likely going nowhere.
1. The waves don't need to be 10ft tall; there are literally millions of other 'waves' per annum, all creating relative movement, continuously, usually. But aunt mildred standing on the pier wouldn't call those 'waves'
2. Like ships....save for the cable
3. Presume you mean onshore wind rather than offshore, otherwise see your point 2
Other than that I have no opinion
No it's not like ships... The y can bob up and down in a storm, or to an extent avoid them.
Wave power machinery is usually tethered to the sea bed and had to withstand huge stresses to a mechanism designed to absorb wave energy (not like ships designed to avoid it)
Sure you can engineer anything out, but that adds cost. And that goes back to my point that the cost/benefit is worse than for a simple land based wind system.
Probably worse too than an offshore wind system but Id be guessing on that.
is that one of those new AI designs; a-storm-AND-gravity-avoiding-ship :)
Most, probably all, of your points are dealt with via offshore wind turbines; I'm sure the main players gave those great thought beforehand continuing to deploy.
I personally believe we need a mixture of sources; diversification if you will.
The greens mightn't like the stuff in the sea that causes marine life distress though, noise, moving parts etc
eg there is a beluga whale at Shetland at present