ocean current

Floating Renewable Energy | Earth Wise

July 22, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A team of researchers at Texas A&M University believes that the next generation of offshore energy could come in the form of a synergistic combination of multiple renewable energy generators installed on a floating offshore platform.

Their concept for the ocean renewable energy station comprises wind, wave, ocean current, and solar energy elements that could generate electricity for anything from a coastal or island community to a research lab or military unit. The station would be tethered to the sea bottom and could be used in locations where the water depth increases quickly, such as along the U.S. Pacific Coast or Hawaii.

Offshore wind is already commercially competitive, while wave-energy converters so far have been less cost-effective and only useful for specialized, smaller-scale applications. The proposed ocean renewable energy station would make use of multiple different methods of electricity generation and incorporate innovative smart materials in the wave energy converters that respond to changes in wave height and frequency and allow for more consistent power production.

Denmark is already building a huge multi-source, multi-purpose ocean energy island. This world’s first energy island will be 30 acres in area and serve as a hub for 200 giant offshore wind turbines generating 3 GW of electric power. It is the largest construction project in Danish history, and will cost an estimate $34 billion. As well as supplying other European countries with electricity, the goal is to use the new offshore island to produce green hydrogen from seawater, which can also be exported. Large battery banks on the island will store surplus electricity for use in times of high demand.

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Research Underway On Floating Renewable Energy Station

Photo, posted September 27, 2014, courtesy of Eric Gross via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Ocean Currents And Climate Change | Earth Wise

September 22, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth and absorb 94% of incoming solar radiation. As a result, oceans play a major role in the climate system. With their massive size and capacity to store heat, oceans help keep temperature fluctuations in check. But oceans also play a more active role. Ocean currents are responsible for moving vast amounts of heat around the planet.

According to a paper recently published in the journal Nature Communications, the world’s strongest ocean currents will experience more intense marine heatwaves than the global average in the coming decades. These strong ocean currents play key roles in fisheries and ocean ecosystems.

Sections of the Gulf Stream near the United States, the Kuroshio Current near Japan, the East Australian Current near Australia, and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current will all see more intense marine heatwaves over the next 30 years.

Scientists from the University of Tasmania and CSIRO in Australia relied on high-resolution ocean modeling to carry out their research. They confirmed the model’s accuracy by comparing outputs with observations from 1982-2018. They then used the same model to project how marine heatwaves would alter with climate change out to 2050.

The model projects, for example, that intense marine heatwaves are more likely to form well off the coast of Tasmania, while more intense marine heatwaves along the Gulf Stream start to appear more frequently close to the shore from Virginia to New Brunswick, Canada.

Marine heatwaves are on the rise globally, but knowing where they will occur and how much hotter they will be will help policymakers, ecologists, and fisheries experts in their regional decision-making.

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