This photo of CD & Power Technician George Enos’s son got me thinking about the future and generators and all the possibilities held by our precious children. Yeah, I know, kind of esoteric for a Thursday. But it’s July and lots of folks around here are on vacation!!
Anyway, I have always been fascinated with the power of the ocean – even the power of the water flowing over Niagara Falls. Now that I am with CD & Power and dealing with power generation, I did a little Google search and found a really interesting project about a new kind of power generator that capitalizes on the power of marine currents.
According to this blog post from the IEEE, the idea is to utilize the ocean’s very stable and steady 3-5 knot current and convert it to “safe, reliable alternative energy.” The project started with an idea from Triton Submarines for a unit that would sit on the ocean floor and steer itself around to find the best current.
Somewhere along the way they teamed up with the Navy and Eaton Corp and Eclipse Group Inc. Eclipse was interesting because it is a privately-held, woman-owned marine service provider for search and recovery, energy, and government/military operations.
http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/OurCompany/NewsEvents/NewsReleases/PCT_394796
I did not find anything written recently about this, other than a post from Popular Science in May 2013 that says the $5 million project could be ready in about a year… That could be any time. Check out these links and let me know what you think. Does it capture your curiosity too?
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/aqua-turbine
Image: Triton Energy Systems, LLC