Marine energy

Colombia enacts key law promoting renewables

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If I am back on this blog, I am also back on Cleantechies with my 60th post there in five years. I am writing for the occasion about my beloved Colombia, which enacted a key law to promote renewables.

Lockeed Martin to develop marine energies

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wave-power-buoyWhat if companies which were making until now weapons decided to dedicate themselves to cleantech ? An example of this came from my friend Olivier Jacquemet and his great blog, Echo Sierra :

” (…) Lockheed Martin is developing its portfolio. Indeed, the defence firm signed with the Australian company Victorian Wave Partners in February to engineer an ocean energy station off the coasts of Australia. “

” According to the agreement, Lockheed Martin will provide expertise in the design and production of the buoys and project management. “

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Tapping into local renewables : the Côte d’Opale

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Wind turbines in BoulogneA couple of weeks ago I went to Boulogne sur Mer and visited the marvellous Côte d’Opale. I had two great summer days between Boulogne and Calais and strongly recommend this little trip if you are looking for enchanting places.

A thing that struck me there is the quantity of wind there is almost all the time. If the Côte d’Azur could and should benefit from solar energies (photovoltaic, thermal, concentrated), the Côte d’Opale should tap into its huge wind energy potential.

There are to date only four wind turbines in the harbour of Boulogne sur Mer (see photo). No doubt there could be many more.

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The ten most promising cleantechs

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The Guardian Sustainable Business blog published last week an interesting post on the ten most promising future cleantechs. I have to admit I am not sure all of them really are as I spotted at least one odd out. Indeed, even if algae, zinc air batteries, organic solar cells or marine energy and most other … Read more

The potential of tidal power

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The New York Times Green blog published a great article about a recent report from IHS Emerging Energy Research on tidal wave. Even if it has been starting very slowly, the energy source could bring up to 10 GW by 2030 globally.

“The global ocean energy sector is at a turning point,” the company’s report says. More than 45 wave and tidal prototypes are expected to be ocean-tested in 2010 and 2011. Only nine were tested in 2009.”

Here is another renewable energy source that could power all our wildest dreams. But as I stated before: we should better rely on several of them as none of them is perfect.

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A third form of marine energy : OTEC

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According to GreenTech Media, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion is after wave and tidal energies the third form of ocean power. Albeit it was discovered a century ago, there have been few attempts at tapping this energy source. To Wikipedia, OTEC ” uses the temperature difference that exists between deep and shallow waters to run a heat … Read more

Scotland to harness 1.2 GW of marine energy

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Scotland announced last week that 1.2 GW of tidal and wave energy capacity would be built there by 2020. To achieve this, 10 projects will be started and will be the first commercial applications of these energy sources.

Scotts are determine to have 31 percent of their electricity coming from renewables by 2011 and are willing to cut their greenhouse gases emissions by 42 percent by 2020.

Both tidal and wave energies have a huge potential and would prove very convenient as more and more people are living in large cities near the coasts.

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Vivace, another renewable energy source

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After my writing of two articles on renewable energy sources from the oceans in October, here comes VIVACE or vortex-induced vibrations for aquatic clean energy.

According to an interesting article by The Telegraph, this prototype could enable us to harness some energy from our rivers and waterbeds around the world.

The potential is huge as to the scientists behind this, by harnessing only 0.1 % of the energy from oceans, we could power 15 billion people.

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More data on energy sources from the oceans

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Only two days after my first article on the various possibilities of harnessing a part of the tremendous energy from our oceans, GreenTech Media provides us with more on this topic.

This article focuses forecasting the future of this particular market segment. With less than 10 MW currently installed, experts believe installed power could reach a GW in only six years.

As you will see, wave energy is currently the most researched, and this even if tidal power provides serious advantages like an important predictability.

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Various energy sources from the oceans

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Oceans are covering up to 70 percent of our planet. Yet, until now we didn’t hear much about their potential for providing us with huge quantities of renewable energy.

But as things are beginning to change as projects are being launched in Europe and in the United States it is time for me to write on this topic.

In today’s article, I will propose you an introduction to the two different possibilities at our disposal as well as a selection of news on this topic.

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Ireland to invest billions on energy

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According to The Guardian and Cleantech, Ireland plans to invest 22 billions euros on renewable energies and “smart” and efficient systems over the next 12 years.

Half of this money will be invested in wind, wave and tidal energies and biomass. This is due to cut by half the greenhouse gases emissions by 2020.

An interesting prospect for this country which might set an example for other countries in developed countries

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