New Concept in Ocean Current Hydrokinetics

A colleague sent me this piece on a Dutch company’s introduction of a floating apparatus that generates electricity from tidal currents (pictured), and asked for my opinion. Here goes:

I admit that this device offers an advantage over those that are anchored into or tethered to the seabed, i.e., ease of maintenance. Having said that, there is obviously an unavoidably huge BoM (bill of materials) associated with this device, and I seriously doubt that the cost of all this stuff will be justified by that advantage.

I’m still a fan of these guys, in terms of over all cost-effectiveness in ocean current hydrokinetics, which is why I consider them a good clean energy investment opportunity.