(images via dartmouthwaveenergy.com)
A horrible name and simple design for pumping water (which can then drive turbines) via wave action on a buoy tethered to the ocean floor (via Treehugger).
Not suddenly solving all the world’s energy woes, but large numbers of this relatively simple, DIY-friendly design could have a nice impact towards sustainability…
6 thoughts on “Searaser: pump water with waves”
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This is pretty cool!
When you think of the simplicity of this device, it makes you wonder why we are not using this and other such simplistic devices in earnest to provide viable energy sources not involving oil and fossil fuel based equipment. I am curious about the PSI this device is capable of producing. It looks like the design could be built on a very large scale and likely produce extreme amounts of pressure. I would think there could be large scale pressure tanks involved that would regulate the PSI (much like a mechanics air compressor does) so at times when the waves are not as active, there would be a reserve of usable pressure.
Another case where the concept is brilliant and desperately needed, but where the implementation falls far short.
Quite simply, the design sucks and could be made far more robust, simple, and efficient. More importantly it SHOULD be greatly refined before getting released to a generally clueless, judgmental, and short sighted public. Excellent base concept, but so many good broadly applicable ideas get thrown onto the garbage pile of history simply because they got chained to the the first bad design to try to use the concept, and the two become inextricably bound up in the public’s mind.
Lets hope this idea takes off, and that this sad implementation doesn’t kill acceptance of the whole idea for yet another generation like previous wave generators of our fathers and grandfathers days.