Oscilla Power

This Mechanical Jellyfish Harvests Tons Of Energy From The Ocean

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This Mechanical Jellyfish Harvests Tons Of Energy From The Ocean

Energy from water may seem to be too good to be true, and to an extent it is. There is a lot of salt in there, and any metal used will corrode pretty quickly. It is also fierce and dangerous, but that is part of the reason why it is so important that we can harness its power. If harnessing were possible, the United States would be able to glean more than 30% of the electricity needed just from the waves along the coast.

Engineers at Oscilla Power hope to use a Wave Energy Converter and turn waves into power. The device is a float at the top and under the water is a suspended ring. The float moves as the waves do and the ring resists. It is this resistance that creates the energy.  This has been tried before, but the machines were not strong enough and also the cost meant that it was not possible to use them. The corrosion that occurs as a result of the salt renders it impossible to repair or replace machinery.

This Mechanical Jellyfish Harvests Tons Of Energy From The Ocean
Oscilla Power’s Triton WEC™ systems will deliver an average power of more than 600kW each and will be arrayed together to form utility-scale power plants.

Oscilla believes that certain parts have caused the problems with other machines and as a result, they have not used them recently. The Triton created power by squeezing the metal alloys and due to this, there is the creation of alternating magnetic poles. It may be an easy system, but it is also a large one. At 100 feet long it is believed that 600kW will be produced by each machine. However, many will want to see the results before believing them.

This device harvests wave power and could power 1/3 of the US

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Researchers from Oscilla Power – a US-based renewable energy company, have developed a mechanism, called Triton, that rests on the ocean surface and gathers power from the constant source of waves.

The machine contains a series of generators and no moving parts, intentionally, so that it won’t be destroyed from all the jostling it’s expected to receive.

“As waves interact with the device, there is an alternating magnetic polarity created in the metal that is used to generate electricity,” reports Meagan Parrish for ChemInfo.  “By the use of flexible tethers, themselves enabled by an asymmetric heave plate, Triton uniquely captures energy from heave, pitch, sway and roll motions”.

So what we have is a giant, floating, metal plate that is connected to tethers that generate electricity when they’re moved around by waves.

Each Triton is expected to produce about 600kW of power, enough to supply energy for 500 average homes every month.   When fully implemented, the program can power 1/3 of the United States’ power consumption and 15% of global need.

Ocean waves are a constant source of power, so it is refreshing when a company taps into it.