Kickstarter project .portable hydropower pack

tidal energy

I think this is pretty neat. Coincides with a project my son is working on for tidal energy generation at University.
This is a mini one. Watch their video.
https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/design?ref=discover_index


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Rob,

I just noticed this. An old friend of mine, long dead now I'm sure, developed a float system to harness wave energy. The results were amazing. They were hoping for 20-30% efficiency and got closer to 80%. An evil oil company story involved, this research was funded by some of the "excess profits" back in the seventies I guess. The oil company decided the patent was too valuable for my friend to have half and they bought him out. Worked out well for him, he settled for $25,000 a year for life and lived at least into his late eighties.

The biggest test model was I think twenty feet by forty or sixty feet long, might have been bigger, I'm pretty sure no smaller. New Zealand wanted a full working plant built but it never happened and the device became one more of those footnotes to history.

Would seem like a fine dual purpose unit. It would absorb wave energy to prevent coastal erosion and produce electrical energy. I saw video of the unit including testing in rough water on Lake Ponchartrain but if any of the working models still exist they are forgotten in a warehouse somewhere and if I ever saw the working drawings I don't remember. Mr Hagan and I worked on an R&D project together then partnered in a few ourselves. Amazing man, he had over eighty patents. One involved a heavier than air craft that flew off of electricity with no moving parts. I did build working models of that device.

He lost his home to fire and flood and moved across the country to be near family. We had planned to stay in touch but he never contacted me.

I believe tidal energy and wave energy have far more potential than wind energy. I don't know why there hasn't been more focus on them.

Hu
 
Not long to go and this project will hopefull be fully funded.

Brent if u see this think of one for your boat. Even though there is solar i still think this is really cool and has its place in power choices.

One wonders what has taken us humans so long to develop some of these alternative sources.

Agree with you Hu. Just consider what Canada should be able to harness from something like the tidal changes in the bay of Fundy.

In case people dont know tidal height change at bay of fundy can be up to 50ft. Thats one heck of a lot of wave energy for free daily.

I think these projects need a special kind of leadership just like the inspiration that existed to go to the moon in the first place. Dont see it happening any time soon unfortunately. Not in a world of career politicians risk is too high.lol




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Brent if u see this think of one for your boat. Even though there is solar i still think this is really cool and has its place in power choices.


Would be really nice for river/tidal area's with a decent current. Not so sure about protected anchorages? But for a sailboat on the move, seems like it'd be pretty nice. Wonder how much drag it would give versus a windmill?
 
Interesting question, the math ends up being quite hard and well outside my ability. The windmill is pretty close to the cost of a comparabley sized mast and the tire behind ends up looking moderately close to a sea anchor with a similar cross section (the blades on both complicate that vague handwavey answer quite a bit).

So the tow behind is definitely a LOT more drag, whether it matters is off course dependent on hull cavitation speed, wind speed, etc.. You get roughly a commensurate amount of increased energy though so there is that. Small scale wind doesn't generate all that much power but hopefully you aren't using much either.

My naive guess is that since you're more likely to Darryl when it's sunny your best bet is probably still solar here given all the considerations.

Nice to see some more innovation on small scalr hydro though. Hydro is definitely one of the most efficient "green" power sources if you can do it.
 
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