Damian Carrington - Does the moon hold the key to the earth’s energy needs?
Using giant kites, blades
and paddles, and mimicking pogo sticks, blowholes and even the human heart,
groups around the world are on the cusp of harnessing the colossal power of the
oceans.
The challenge is huge
- seas have been battering coasts and sweeping sailors to their doom for
millennia - but so is the prize: huge amounts of clean, reliable and renewable
electricity for an energy-hungry world. Taking on the
challenge of operating in this savage, corrosive environment is not for the
faint-hearted, and the costs remain worryingly high, as demonstrated by
the government’s
rejection on Monday of a £1.3bn tidal project at Swansea. “There is no
doubt – shit happens during marine renewable energy projects,” says François
Renelier at Bessé, a French insurance broker.
But the ocean energy
sector is frothing with ideas, with hundreds of companies developing an
extraordinary array of devices and backed by billions of dollars of investment.
Among the serious contenders tapping rapid tidal flows are 12 metre-wide
underwater kites that soar and swoop.
“We fly with the
tides,” says Martin Eklund, at Minesto,
which is installing a £25m array off Anglesey, north Wales. “The main advantage
is we can harvest energy from very low currents. This resource is abundant – it
is everywhere.”.. read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/04/does-the-moon-hold-the-key-to-the-earths-energy-needs