Here’s a video showing how a water wheel can generate electricity from a fast-running river. Is this BS? It depends on how you define “BS.” It will generate electricity to be sure. Will it do so cost-effectively? Not in a …
Category: Hydrokinetics
Home Hydrokinetics
If you happen to live next to a year-round fast-flowing river, there’s no reason you can’t do what this guy did: buy a water wheel, connect it to a generator, and power your house. Will this be cost-effective? I doubt …
Tagged with: Home Hydrokinetics
Ocean Wave Energy: An Exercise in Futility
When I entered the renewable energy beat 15 years ago, devices like the one shown here, that extract some of the kinetic energy out of ocean waves, were considered potentially feasible. Over the years, however, we’ve both a) seen the …
Ocean Wave Energy
Here’s another variation on the theme of converting the kinetic energy in ocean waves into electricity. Is it any better than what’s available now? No. This device allows the waves to move a long series of conductors up and down …
Tagged with: ocean wave energy
Wave Energy
We will be hearing about niche applications of renewable energy until hell freezes over, and I have no problem with that. Having said that, I do object to developers of these technologies who claim that energy that is extracted from …
Tagged with: economically competitive with wind and solar, energy that is extracted from waves, niche applications of renewable energy, river and ocean and currents, Solar Thermal, the heat buried within the Earth, wave energy makes sense in a few coastal regions of the world where fossil fuels are expensive to import and solar and wind conditions are particularly bad
Ocean Wave Energy
A friend asked for my views on ocean wave energy, which I sent along (see link above). I wrote, “Some of them are more pessimistic than others. In essence, there are still several different basic concepts, but none has any …
Should You Invest in an Entrant in the “$4 Billion Wave Energy Market?”
Well, let’s start with an easier question: Is there a $4 billion wave energy market? The answer: No. Not now, not ever. Why? Because the levelized cost of energy from wave energy is outrageously high, and it will never become …
Should You Invest in an Entrant in the “$4 Billion Wave Energy Market?” Read More »
Ocean Wave Energy Doomed To Failure
This is about what anyone who knows anything about clean energy would have predicted about Eco Wave Power Global: a loss of about 75% of its market value since it hit NASDAQ about six months ago. How long does it …
Do You Know This Insurrectionist?
OMG! I think I interviewed this guy for a chapter in my second book, “Is Renewable Really Doable?” He’s a college professor, overseeing a team of graduate students that is working on raising the efficiency of hydrokinetic devices. No, on …
Concept in Hydrokinetics
Extracting the kinetic energy out of flowing water, aka hydrokinetics, can take many forms. Take a look at the video linked here and tell me what you think. Does inserting the device partially into the water seem like a good …
