Wave Energy project off Oregon

[Gilligan (Premo)]

Moving forward. Should be interesting; my company had some minor involvement in the early stages of design for this 'spar buoy' type of system.

Seadiscovery.com - Ocean Power Awards 4 Major Contracts In Oregon

[GWguy]

There is a tremendous amount of energy to be tapped in ocean currents and tides, but it's big downfall is maintenance. Very expensive to maintain, and due to sea growth on the hardware, needs to be maintained constantly. If/when there is a failure, either highly paid divers or expensive submersibles have to make repairs, or haul the whole assembly up onto a barge.

And yes, I speak from experience. I used to maintain a tide tower in the Atlantic off Long Island in 100 foot of water.

[Gilligan (Premo)]

Originally Posted by GWguy

There is a tremendous amount of energy to be tapped in ocean currents and tides, but it's big downfall is maintenance. Very expensive to maintain, and due to sea growth on the hardware, needs to be maintained constantly. If/when there is a failure, either highly paid divers or expensive submersibles have to make repairs, or haul the whole assembly up onto a barge.

And yes, I speak from experience. I used to maintain a tide tower in the Atlantic off Long Island in 100 foot of water.

I assumed much of that from my experiences with other marine structures - ships - and also the experiences that they've had in Europe with prototype/pilot wave and/or tide energy projects. Not so good....

The design we worked on was incredibly dirt simple and robust with respect to materials and construction (the project lead had a lot of offshore oil structures experience ) but I remain a skeptic too. As I am am with wind energy too, for that matter.

[GWguy]

Originally Posted by Gilligan

I assumed much of that from my experiences with other marine structures - ships - and also the experiences that they've had in Europe with prototype/pilot wave and/or tide energy projects. Not so good....

The design we worked on was incredibly dirt simple and robust with respect to materials and construction (the project lead had a lot of offshore oil structures experience ) but I remain a skeptic too. As I am am with wind energy too, for that matter.

Me too. I've got a few designs that I've developed over the years, but knew they couldn't be practical.