Pelamis Wave Power—Another Alternative Energy Bust
If you ever walked along an ocean shore you’ll have seen the constant waves rolling in. 
According to Wikipedia, the idea to harness that wave energy has been proposed as early as 1799. Over the last 15 years several technologies have been proposed. Among them, the Pelamis wave power system is one of a couple of dozens of ocean wave energy extraction schemes.
As many (or all?) “alternative” energy schemes, they all sound good on paper. In reality, though, they do not live up to the expectations. The Pelamis system, developed and deployed in Scotland, is just one example.
The Pelamis System
The Pelamis system consists of a string of large steel tubes that bob up and down along the wave contour on the ocean surface. The semi-submerged tubes are partially filled with water that sloshes back and forth inside and drives small turbines within the tubes.
The first picture below shows one Pelamis string in the ocean water offshore Scotland’s north shore.
More interesting is a view of a tube interior, as in the second picture.
As you can see from the number of wheels on the carrier, these tubes are a fair size.
The Pelamis Problem
Despite the company’s claims of “Since 1998, the Pelamis development programme has covered all aspects of the design from the fundamental concept refinement through to accelerated cycle testing of individual components for reliability,” there is always a “weak link.” As you can imagine, the constant push and pull by the ocean waves does cause wear and tear on all parts that connect the tubes along the string and tether the leading tube edge to the ocean bottom.
In November 2014 the company essentially declared bankruptcy with a statement by its board that reads “The directors of Pelamis regret to announce that they have been unable to secure the additional funding required for further development of the Company’s market leading wave energy technology. As a result of this the board has reluctantly moved to appoint an administrator to assess the options for securing the future for the business and employees of Pelamis….”
Obviously, the claim that “Pelamis is the world’s most advanced wave energy technology and company” does not guarantee any reliable, sustained, and competitive alternative energy generation. Of course, these types of problems are common to all floating ocean wave power generator schemes. In order to avoid them, recently engineers became more interested in stationary wave power devices.
Stationary Wave Power Schemes
Stationary Wave Power Schemes use fixed support structures that extract the wave energy with movable parts of one sort or another. The Blue Power Energy Co. has ashort video with some design principles. When watching it, just remember, they are concepts only. Statements like “The concept involves converting the linear heaving motion of a wave energy buoy into rotational kinetic energy using our innovative linear/rotary gear box. The gear box drives a flywheel which then drives a standard Permanent Magnet electric generator” do not harness any energy at all. They just want you to buy into their idea to support the development cost.
Of course, you are always welcome to dream up another ocean wave power generation system next time you hike along the ocean shore. Perhaps you may even be able to persuade a bureaucrat or politician to fund a prototype.
However, when it comes to delivering all the promised energy, more likely than not, it’s going to be just another alternative energy generation bust.
Addendum, Jan. 7, 2015
In October 2014, a report [1] appeared that provides additional support to my claim of the preponderance of natural CO2 emissions. That report describes the additional seamounts recently discovered by more detailed mapping of the ocean floor. As a result, the number of such ocean volcanoes and vents quadrupled overnight, from 5,000 to 20,000. Though many of these seamounts sprang up in pre-historic times and may not be showing any current activity whatsoever, a good portion likely does. The sheer number of such newly discovered structures is certainly surprising.
[1] B. Oskin, Live Science, Geological Wonderland: Thousands of Seamounts Discovered in New Seafloor Map; http://www.livescience.com/48124-new-seafloor-map-reveals-wonderland.html .
Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser is author of CONVENIENT MYTHS, the green revolution – perceptions, politics, and facts convenientmyths.com
Dr. Kaiser can be reached at:[email protected]
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