Often WEC’s are presented with horrendous claims on efficiency having no basis in real world experiments. These unsupported claims put us all in bad standing, and even worse – divert funding – from projects claiming more modest but realisic efficiencies.
What is the solution? Do we all have to claim 100% efficiency to compete on equal terms or can you come up with a better solution?
At a recent conference on green-tech I was astonished by the lack of technical insight by some of the speakers. This is potentially damaging for our (yet to come) industry. Potential investors do not have the technical knowledge to seperate good concepts from lousy ones. Hence there is a good chance that the available investor money that could propel WEC into commecial reality is lost on projects having no commercial viability.
Could we in common find a way to evaluate WEC’s on a fair and equal basis? We really needs a mechanism that seperates the really good ideas from the mad scientist ideas. If we do nothing there is a very real danger that this window of oppotunity will be lost forever and investers will instead concentrate on (even bigger) wind turbines and solar, leaving WEC’s in the dust.
Kristian Glejbøl
Wind turbines and solar panels are billion dollar industries. Wave energy devices are seen in many different designs but none of them have succeeded commercially. At WavePiston we think its because the cost of mooring and grid connection have been unknown factors for the developers. Furthermore the massive forces during storms are known – but maybe not realy comprehended.
Martin von Bülow
Wavepiston needs pistonshafts exposed to sea-water. According to my colleagues AISI316 might be sufficiently corrosion resistant if the surface is polished.
Anyone else having experience with hydraulic shafts exposed to seawater. Obviously titanium or super-duplex shafts will survive, however the cost of these materials = $$$$$$$$$
Welcome to our blog. Here we will post our thoughts on the Wavepiston concept and on wave energy in general. Feel free to comment on the posts or drop us an email if you have thoughts on wave energy you want us to post.
Thanks for dropping by!
Martin von Bülow
With current technology wave power is not able to compete with wind power. Most of the existing wave energy concepts were invented more than 30 years ago and few new are invented. We at WavePiston believe technical universities should be more active in driving the development. Resources should be used in large advanced test facilities where students would be inspired to work on this important task.
Wind is refined solar energy. Waves are refined wind energy.
(Kristian Glejbol)
