What are mhk technologies?
Download 0.89 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Wave energy is predictable and can add to a sustain energy portfolio that fosters energy security
- New wave power tech is economically viable and drives down costs
- Deploying wave tech on US coasts could supply 1/4 of the US’s energy per year
- Wave energy provides continuous, renewable power
- Wave power can provide 15% of US electricity by 2030
- Wave and tidal energy have great potential, but still needs more development
- Wave Energy – Noise Pollution
- Wave Energy – A2: Hurts Biodiversity
- Wave Energy – Reduces emissions
- Wave energy is a clean source of electrical power
- Wave power has huge potential to displace fossil fuels and will soon be economically feasible
- Ocean wave tech collisions poses some threat to organisms
Wave Energy GoodWave Energy – General SolvencyCoastal proximity and electricity consumption mean wave power could supply up to 78% of U.S. electricity needs(RME) ‘14, Resolute Marine Energy, Inc., wave energy conversion research firm, “Wave Energy,” http://www.resolutemarine.com/ about/wave-energy, Accessed 5/3/2014 Wave energy has several advantages over other renewable energy resources with the first being that it is in close proximity to electricity demand centers. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the 28 U.S. coastal states consume 78 percent of the nation's electricity, but only six can meet even one-fifth of their power demand with land-based renewable energy technologies. According to the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) division of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), approximately 40% of the world’s population lives within100 kilometers of the coast and population density is expected to increase markedly over the next several decades in response to climate change effects. Waves have an energy density over 800x higher than wind which means that more energy can be extracted from a given area which translates into an offshore and onshore footprint that doesn’t require the sacrifice of large tracts of valuable coastal real estate. Wave energy has additional benefits related to its predictability (accurate localized estimates of wave conditions can be made up to 72 hours in advance), consistency (24/7 availability and less dramatic short-term variations in energy flux) and low visual impact (RME’s wave energy converters have a minimal surface presence). Wave energy is predictable and can add to a sustain energy portfolio that fosters energy securityAquamarine Power, ’11 a wave energy technology firm, , “Technology: Why wave power?,” Accessed 5/3/2014, http://www.aquamarinepower.com/technology/why-wave-power/ Ocean waves are generated by wind passing over the surface of the sea - a process which often begins many hundreds or thousands of miles from shore. Because waves originate a long way from shore, computer models of wave propagation allow us to accurately forecast incoming waves up to five days in advance. In comparison with wind energy, it's easier to accurately predict how much energy can be generated by waves, and when. In addition, the peaks and troughs of wind and wave energy do not always coincide. This means there are times when there is abundant wave energy and little wind. This diversity helps even out the fluctuating nature of some renewable energy sources. When combined with other renewable energy, such as hydro power, it helps provide a more predictable and steady renewable energy mix. A diverse renewable energy portfolio means a more stable energy system, reduced variability and lower cost. In addition, a strong renewable energy mix means we become less reliant on traditional power sources such as oil and gas. This gives us greater energy security. New wave power tech is economically viable and drives down costsThe Maritime Executive 6/21 The Maritime Executive. “New Wave Power Technology Cuts Costs.” June 21, 2014. Date accessed: June 25, 2014. http://www.maritime-executive.com/pressrelease/New-Wave-Power-Technology-Cuts-Costs-2014-06-21 CorPower is bringing a new type of compact high efficiency wave energy converter (WEC) to market. The patent pending technology, inspired by the pumping principles of the human heart, can enable harvesting of energy from ocean waves with an energy density five times higher than currently known methods at less than a third of the cost per kWh. Wave power represents a significant opportunity for clean renewable energy supply. With an economically exploitable resource estimated to 2000-4000TWh, 10-20 percent of the global electricity can be provided by wave power, assuming a reliable and cost effective technology is demonstrated. Wave power offers a fairly predictable output with power levels that can be forecasted 1-2 days in advance and a different timing of intermittency compared wind and solar, which is beneficial for grid balancing. The seasonal load correlates well with the electricity consumption on the northern hemisphere. The wave farm concept is based on combining hundreds to thousands of small WEC units in arrays, with a common grid export cable that connects the offshore wave farm to existing on-land grid. With a WEC rating of 100-300kW per unit this enables wave farms with 10-300MW capacity. The concept allows mass production to drive down cost per unit and an effective maintenance scheme based on replacement of entire units at sea. The service scheme offers significant improvement in farm uptime and operational costs, and is enabled by the small physical size and limited cost per system. CorPower’s team has extensive experience in the energy generation market, system design, manufacturing and marketing of advanced technology products.
The Mapping and Assessment of the United States Ocean Wave Energy Resource report, created by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), assesses ocean wave energy potential along the U.S. coasts. Researchers at Virginia Tech and DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) supported the report and data validation. The report finds that the U.S. theoretical resource for waves is 2,640 TWh/year and the technically recoverable resource for electric generation is approximately 1,170 terawatt-hours per year (TWh/year). For context, the United States uses 4,000 TWh of electricity each year and approximately 85,000 homes could be powered by 1 TWh/year. Developing just a small fraction of the available wave energy resource could allow for millions of American homes to be powered with this clean, reliable form of energy. Wave energy provides continuous, renewable powerKillough 6/23 Dawn Killough is a green building consultant in Salem, Oregon. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor. She started Tree Hugging Consulting in 2008. “Ocean Wave Energy Provides Continuous Renewable Power.” Green Building Elements. June 23, 2014. Date accessed: June 26, 2014. http://greenbuildingelements.com/2014/06/23/ocean-wave-energy-provides-continuous-renewable-power/ The use of water power dates back thousands of years to the water wheels of Ancient Greece, which used the energy in falling water to generate power to grind wheat. Modern hydrokinetic technologies produce renewable electricity by harnessing the kinetic energy of a body of water, the energy that results from its motion. Estimates suggest that the amount of energy that could feasibly be captured from US waves, tides and river currents is enough to power over 67 million homes. Capturing the energy contained in near and off-shore waves is thought to have the greatest energy production potential amongst hydrokinetic options. The rise and fall of ocean waves is driven by winds and influenced by oceanic geology. Ocean tides and currents, such as the Gulf Stream, are also thought to provide opportunities for power generation. Hydrokinetic energy is attractive for its predictability – wave patterns can be predicted days in advance, and tides for centuries. Additionally, while waves and ocean currents are variable, they can provide continuous power, which is not possible from other renewables like tidal streams, wind, or solar power. How is ocean wave energy generated? The technologies developed to generate energy from waves and currents, called hydrokinetic energy conversion devices, are generally categorized as either wave energy converters (WECs) or rotating devices. WECs utilize the motion of two or more bodies relative to each other. One of these bodies, called the displacer, is acted on by the waves. The second body, the reactor, moves in response to the displacer.
Energy.gov. “Tapping Into Wave and Tidal Ocean Power: 15% Water Power by 2030.” January 27, 2012. Date accessed: June 26, 2014. http://energy.gov/articles/tapping-wave-and-tidal-ocean-power-15-water-power-2030 In the most rigorous analyses undertaken to date, two recently released resource assessments show that waves and tidal currents off the nation's coasts contain enough energy to provide a significant portion our nation’s total annual electricity usage. The United States uses about 4,000 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year. The reports find that the nation’s waves and tides could potentially produce up to 1,420 TWh annually. The wave and tidal resource assessments, combined with preliminary results from ongoing DOE assessments of ocean current, ocean thermal, and hydropower opportunities, indicate that water power can potentially provide 15% of our nation’s electricity by 2030. The West Coast, including Alaska and Hawaii, has especially high potential for wave energy development while significant opportunities also exist along the East Coast, which have strong tides that could be tapped to produce energy. Wave and tidal energy have great potential, but still needs more developmentGraeber 13 Daniel Graeber is a senior journalist at the energy news site Oilprice.com. He is a writer and political analyst based in Michigan. “Tidal power: Energy’s wave of the future?” The Christian Science Monitor. September 10, 2013. Date accessed: June 26, 2014. http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0910/Tidal-power-Energy-s-wave-of-the-future Last week, the Obama administration announced it was throwing $16 million into 17 different projects meant to find a way to capture energy from waves, tides and currents cheaper and more efficiently. The U.S. may be a bit behind in the game but the Energy Department said it viewed wave and tidal energy as a "large, untapped resource" for renewable energy. To fend off advocacy early birds tired of the tried and true fracking protests, the Energy Department said it was funding university research projects meant to examine everything from the impacts hydrokinetic devices have on fish species to how killer whales respond to the sounds produced by underwater turbines. The bulk of the spending, however, was on research and development meant to make marine power a better utility. That means proving it's worth it to private investors. (Related article: Amid Rising Global Interest in Renewable Energy, Tidal Power to Surge?) Remember that Pelamis wave system? While Solyndra was going under, a British report in 2011 found the country's marine energy sector might be worth as much as $118 billion, yes billion, and support more than 65,000 jobs by 2050. In the states, meanwhile, shares in Forest Oil Corp. dipped more than 3 percent after it announced the sale of 58,000 acres of shale in the Permian Basin of West Texas. Remember natural gas darling Chesapeake Energy? It's been hemorrhaging assets to help pay off its debt. While marine and hydrokinetic energy may be quite literally the wave of the future, its moment may be beyond the current horizon. That said, it's predictable, it's easy to get to, and some of the world's most densely populated areas are coastal communities, which means it's cheap to connect to the grid. But it's in the future. If we use the post-Solyndra success of SunPower as a standard, however, high tide for marine energy may be rolling in. Wave Energy – Noise PollutionNoise pollution from wave energy affects organisms during construction, not during operationWitt et al 11 M. J. Witt, E. V. Sheehan, S. Bearhop , A. C. Broderick, D. C. Conley, S. P. Cotterell, E. Crow, W. J. Grecian, C. Halsband, D. J. Hodgson, P. Hosegood, R. Inger, P. I. Miller, D. W. Sims, R. C. Thompson, K. Vanstaen, S. C. Votier, M. J. Attrill and B. J. Godley. “Assessing wave energy effects on biodiversity: the Wave Hub experience.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. There is an increasing body of evidence suggesting that anthropogenic underwater noise and vibrations can have adverse effects on a range of marine taxa, including marine mammals, fish and benthic invertebrates [37–39]. For MREIs, disturbance is likely to be most severe during construction [40]; for example, pile driving affects the behaviour of seals [41] and cetaceans [42]. Noise during the operational phase of wave farms is likely to have a less acute effect; however, research is required to determine the potential for chronic, long-term effects, which will depend on the frequency of noise, energy emitted and species' auditory ranges [38]. Current research on noise from wind farms during their operational phase suggests little evidence of impact (when compared with noise during the construction phase) beyond small-scale behavioural avoidance [43]. The impacts of wind farms on bird abundance have received much attention [44], but the behavioural mechanisms and cues used by birds to detect and avoid wind farms remain under-studied, although it has been suggested that the noise from turbines is used to help minimize collisions [31]. Owing to this lack of current knowledge, and the very different operation of WECs compared with wind turbines, noise production and its scale of impact are key areas of interest required from future studies and should thus be a focus of research at the design phase. Wave Energy – A2: Hurts BiodiversityWave energy farms will have minimal effect on marine habitatsWitt et al 11 M. J. Witt, E. V. Sheehan, S. Bearhop , A. C. Broderick, D. C. Conley, S. P. Cotterell, E. Crow, W. J. Grecian, C. Halsband, D. J. Hodgson, P. Hosegood, R. Inger, P. I. Miller, D. W. Sims, R. C. Thompson, K. Vanstaen, S. C. Votier, M. J. Attrill and B. J. Godley. “Assessing wave energy effects on biodiversity: the Wave Hub experience.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22184674 MREIs, such as wave farms, are unlikely to cause substantial widespread alteration to benthic habitats, particularly when considered in relation to other human activities, such as commercial trawl fisheries [24]. Inappropriate placement of MREIs in sensitive areas, such as fish spawning habitats or regions with high biodiversity, does however have the potential to negatively impact certain taxa [20]. Anchoring, used to maintain the position of WECs, may include the use of pile driving, gravity bases or drag anchors, each having different potential effects. The cumulative effects of multiple array-based wave farms is not fully understood. The addition of novel structures to marine habitats also represents the opportunity for colonization and, while there may seem obvious benefits for some species (e.g. crustaceans), new structures may provide substrates for colonization by invasive species or alter dynamics of existing populations.
CETO converts wave energy to zero-emission electricityKris Walker, Oct. 7, ‘13, “Converting Wave Energy into zero-emission electricity and desalinated water,” AzoCleantech, http://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=441, Accessed 5/3/2014 Harnessing the vast amounts of renewable energy from the depths of the ocean has taken a giant leap forward with this revolutionary technology from Carnegie Energy. The main benefits of wave energy come from the reliability and predictability of wave activity as well as 60% of the world population living within 60 kilometers off a coast making the proximity of wave energy sites applicable to its end users. Based in Australia, Carnegie Energy has produced the first wave power converter that is fully submerged producing high-pressure water using wave power. The CETO utilizes standard reverse osmosis desalination technology to produce zero-emission freshwater and zero-emission electricity. Wave energy is a clean source of electrical powerAquamarine Power, ‘11, a wave energy technology firm, “Technology: Why wave power?,” Accessed 5/3/2014, http://www.aquamarinepower.com/technology/why-wave-power/ Wave energy is, by its nature, a clean energy resource. Aside from the energy expended in manufacture and installation of wave energy devices, it produces no carbon emissions. Our industry is still very new but studies undertaken to date show the process of capturing wave energy has minimal environmental impact. Our Oyster device, for example, is a simple, slow-moving buoyant flap. This flap moves backwards and forwards in the waves and pumps water ashore. There is no electricity production or fast moving equipment at sea. And as Oyster uses freshwater as its hydraulic fluid it means there are no hydrocarbons in its system. The device sits largely underwater so there is minimal visual impact. Wave power has huge potential to displace fossil fuels and will soon be economically feasibleGlobal Site Plans, May 14, ‘13, an environmental marketing firm, “Tidal Wave Energy: Is it Ecologically Sustainable?,” http://www.globalsiteplans.com/environmental-design/tidal-wave-energy-is-it-ecologically-sustainable/, Accessed 5/3/2014 Global energy demand continues to grow and tidal wave energy generation devices can provide a significant source of renewable energy. Technological developments in offshore engineering, and the rising cost of traditional energy, means that offshore energy resources will be economic in the next few years. Tidal wave energy is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into useful forms of power – mainly electricity. Although not yet widely used, tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power, as there can be bigger variances in the amount and levels of sunlight and wind. A2: Collisions / FishOcean wave tech collisions poses some threat to organismsWitt et al 11 M. J. Witt, E. V. Sheehan, S. Bearhop , A. C. Broderick, D. C. Conley, S. P. Cotterell, E. Crow, W. J. Grecian, C. Halsband, D. J. Hodgson, P. Hosegood, R. Inger, P. I. Miller, D. W. Sims, R. C. Thompson, K. Vanstaen, S. C. Votier, M. J. Attrill and B. J. Godley. “Assessing wave energy effects on biodiversity: the Wave Hub experience.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The study of effects on marine biota in offshore environments, such as at MREIs, is particularly challenging and requires novel detection strategies [25–27]. Strike risk between WECs and mobile marine species is likely to differ with device type, and avoidance ability is likely to vary as a function of species and body size [28–30], diel activity pattern [31,32] or age and reproductive stage [33]. WECs are likely to have less above-water vertical structure than wind farms, hence reducing avian collision risk [34]. The impact of WECs on diving birds does, however, require further research, particularly with respect to the potential fish aggregating effects that WECs and their associated structures might have. This response may potentially serve to aggregate prey for diving birds and other species, with a concomitant chance of increased interactions between WECs and mobile species. Subsurface fixed structures such as wind turbine monopiles most probably pose little risk owing to their ease of navigation; however, WEC cables, chains and power lines will be more mobile and so potentially more complex to navigate [35]. Proposed WECs with rotating turbines or sea-water intake have the potential to seriously injure or kill some organisms [20], although this may be more of a concern for tidal stream devices. Continued modelling efforts will, however, help us to further clarify issues regarding the potential effects and subsequent impacts of wave energy for marine birds [36]. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 0.89 Mb. Share with your friends:
|