Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Nevertheless, there is a source of potential signi
cance
near the shore and much work is under way trying to
harvest part of it. There has been little success so far and
only about
megawatts are being generated compared
with a total world electricity generation of over
tera-
watts. A colleague at Stanford who works in the
eld
tells me that only about
million per year in revenue
from ocean-generated electricity sales is being produced
after a total world investment in the technology of about
$
$
million over many years. However, hope springs
eternal in the human breast and that plus generous
subsidies have revived interest in trying to do better
than was done in previous attempts to harness waves,
tides, and ocean currents.
There are far too many different types of devices being
proposed or under test for me to attempt to describe them
here. There are topics that go into some detail on wave and
tidal energy as well as on other forms of renewable energy.
The oceans, even near the shore, are a hostile environ-
ment. Any system has to cope with the corrosive proper-
ties of salt water, and the wildly varying conditions
ranging from calms to violent storms. Unfortunately for
system costs, the design has to be able to survive the worst
of storms, and that alone makes all ocean systems expen-
sive. Still, there are isolated communities and islands
where an ocean source would be economically worth-
while. In the
first edition I said that wave-, tidal-, and
One I like is Godfrey Boyle
]. The topic was
designed for an undergraduate course on renewable energy and has
more mathematics than the general reader might like, but it also is
descriptive and worth more than a casual look if you are interested in
learning more.
'
is Renewable Energy [
