A Newly Electric Green – Sustainable Energy, Resources and Design
Power generation based on the "motion of the ocean" offers
significant long-term value, and arguably could eventually displace
solar and wind generation for large-scale renewable energy projects.
Hydrokinetic power (encompassing wave, current and tidal power) doesn't
have the "intermittency"
problems facing solar and wind, nor are there as many issues about
ruined views and overrun landscape. Costs remain high, however. There
are numerousoceanpowerprojects in testing,
and while most show promise, I don't believe we've yet seen the real
breakout project putting ocean power at the front of the renewable
energy race.
The latest contender is the "Manchester Bobber,"
an ocean power platform design from the University of Manchester. The
up-and-down motion of the water surface drives a generator; a full-size
unit should be able to produce a mean power output of around 5
megawatts:
[Professor Peter Stansby, co-inventor of
the Manchester Bobber :] "Energy from the sea may be extracted in many
ways and harnessing the energy from the bobbing motion of the sea is
not a new idea. It is the hydrodynamics of the float employed by the
Manchester Bobber that provides the vital connection to generating
electricity."
The devices unique features include:
The vulnerable mechanical and
electrical components are housed in a protected environment well above
sea level, which makes for ease of accessibility. All mechanical and electrical
components are readily available, resulting in high reliability
compared to other devices, with a large number of more sophisticated
components. The Manchester Bobber will respond to waves from any direction without requiring adjustment.The ability to maintain and
repair specific 'Bobber' generators (independent of others in a linked
group) means that generation supply to the network can continue
uninterrupted.
One interesting proposal
is that the Bobbers be built on decommissioned oil rigs. Aside from
reducing the construction costs, this idea has a significant symbolic
value.
Phase 1 tests of a 1/100th working model completed early this year,
and Phase 2 tests of a 1/10th scale version are now underway. The
university group is working on a preliminary design of the full-size
version, and hope to have a time frame for construction by the end of
this year.
I believe that hydro energy production is even more promising than wind
or solar because it is more concentrated energy source. It is also a
steady source of power as opposed to the intermittancy of wind and
solar. Another benefit is the proximity of large urban centres to large
bodies of water.
Juan Cole gets all hot and bothered over Stephie's Sunday revelation.
The implication is that Bush and Cheney took part in discussions with
Karl Rove, Lewis Libby and other administration spinmeisters about what
to do about that pesky Joseph Wilson IV, former acting ambassador to
Iraq who had stood up to Saddam in fall of 1990. So the Bush team
ordered an investigation into Wilson after his editorial in the NY
Times.
The whole point of Bushism is to punish dissidence within the ranks
immediately and ruthlessly. Wilson, a former State Department official,
had to be destroyed for having stepped out of line. It didn't matter to them that Wilson had been proved right. In their
world, you only lose if the public sees the truth. The mere discovery
of the truth in some obscure quarter is irrelevant. They had to prevent
the public from seeing Wilson's truth.
Rove and Libby were chosen as the hatchet men who would actually talk
to the reporters and put the information around. But of course Bush and
Cheney were part of the deliberations that set the plan in motion. It
involved outing a career CIA operative (and likely getting her contacts
in the third world killed). It was very serious business. Bush would
have had to have signed off on it, at least orally.
[snip]
I have long been frustrated by the US press's tendency to talk about
Bush's cabinet officers as though they were independent agents, and to
put Bush on a pedestal. Let me just follow through on some further
assertions in the spirit of Stephanopoulos's remark.
It is fruitless to speculate about who dissolved the Iraqi army
in May of 2003, and why. (This move contributed to the rise of the
Sunni Arab guerrilla movement). Bush did it!
Who ordered the Marines, against their better judgement, to launch a
reprisal attack on Fallujah after four Western private security guards
were killed and their bodies desecrated there? Bush did it!
Who authorized torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib? Bush did it!
Who appointed Michael Brown, a man with no experience in emergency management, head of FEMA? Bush did it!
Who let Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora? Bush did it!
Who completely destroyed the fiscal health of the US government and
forced us into massive debt, squandering Clinton's surplus and
endangering social security? Bush did it!
Bush is the president. He makes the decisions. If there has been a major bad decision, it has been his.
Who outed Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA operative? Bush did it!
As long as the Republicans control both houses of congress, Bush is
probably safe. I'm not sure a special counsel like Fitzpatrick could by
himself bring down a president. But if the Democrats can take the
Senate in 2006, this scandal could turn into an impeachment trial.
Power generation based on the "motion of the ocean" offers
significant long-term value, and arguably could eventually displace
solar and wind generation for large-scale renewable energy projects.
Hydrokinetic power (encompassing wave, current and tidal power) doesn't
have the "
