[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/EW-04-18-14-Progress-in-Ocean-Energy.mp3|titles=EW 04-18-14 Progress in Ocean Energy]
For over a decade, the annual Ocean Energy International conference has followed the steady but creeping progress of technologies to extract energy from the world’s oceans. This year’s meeting in Providence, Rhode Island featured multiple announcements of major new projects. The pace of commercialization of ocean energy is definitely quickening.
The ocean can provide energy from wind, waves, and tides and even from temperature differences between the surface and deeper water. And all of these energy sources are now seeing active development.
One major project is the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon off the south coast of Wales. When completed, it will be the world’s first human-constructed, energy-generating lagoon, with a 240 megawatt rated capacity and an average 14 hours of generation every day.
The tidal lagoon will be a 6-mile-long, 35-foot-high semi-circular sea wall that will enclose an area west of Swansea Marina and will have hydro turbines scattered along its length. Sluice gates in the lagoon control water levels during the rise and fall of the tides. With this mechanism to control the height of the water in the lagoon, water can be made to flow through the turbines four times a day.
A tidal lagoon system can provide a clean and highly predictable energy source, especially in locations with high tidal ranges, such as in Swansea Bay. Potentially, it could generate a large amount of power.
These projects along with a large ocean thermal energy project in China, and multiple offshore wind projects are strong evidence that the ocean energy industry is moving ahead much faster than previously thought.
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Web Links
Ocean Energy Technologies Speeding Towards Commercialization
Harness the power of Swansea Bay
Photo, taken July 30, 2007, courtesy of Kevin McManus via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.