Extracting Energy from Slow-Moving Currents

[ResinRat2]

University of Michigan new technology can extract energy from water moving as slow as 1 knot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcyM3c5ylSU

[hansvonlieven]

It's an interesting idea Dave,

Because the University of Michigan is involved there is probably going to be some interest in this. Perhaps they will even build a pilot plant with public funds.

Altogether I don't see any future in it. There are a number of huge problems with this that they even admit but don't explain. Apart from environmental concerns the biggest problem is marine growth.This kind of complex mechanism does not do well under water. Marine growth will stuff up the required profiles and gum the works in no time unless you use antifouling paint that will kill all mermaids within a 200 mile radius.

Joking aside though, to keep a mechanism as complex as this going under water might be easy in a sterile university tank, out there in the ocean or in a river it becomes a different matter altogether. If you have scrubbed the "Barnies" off a yacht as often as I have you would get some idea of the problem. It doesn't take long for them to stuff the works. And that is just one of the problems.

This project will go the way of the Edsel.

Hans von Lieven

[ResinRat2]

Yes, those are good points Hans. I could see objects getting stuck in them and growths forming on the moving parts. Probably not too practical. I found the story and thought it was interesting, but it will most likely go nowhere in the development stage.

Oh well, back to the quest.