There is a lot of incredible engineering packed into this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! Also, don't forget to check out Onshape for FREE: Onshape.pro/Ziroth - You won't regret giving it a try!
Why wouldn't they create a "ring" of them and attach it to the base of the offshore wind towers. That infrastructure is already in the right place - cabling, supports, maintenance schedules ....
Hi thanks great piece as always. Now I realise it's a little off topic for yourself but I was wondering if you could answer a question I've had sfor a long time and have found no answer to on the entire internet. Why is it when a gas lighter is refilled and it's transparent with 2 connected sections only one fills with liquid gas at a time? You have to manually orientated the lighter to move the liquid into the second chamber before then filling the primary a second time? Surely if the chamber are connected pressure would be equal in both? Anyway if you could it may make an interesting side video about liquid gasses under pressure, especially given the hydrogen revolution that's almost certainly about to happen.
My thoughts are you shouldn't court a scientific or engineering type of audience then lie to us and say "200% EFFICIENCY". If you wanted to flog above infinity machines you should have just made AI junk content and courted that audience.
My grandfather made a wave generator on his boat, it was just a generator (electric motor of some sort I think?), with weights and springs. it created electricity when offshore with engines off. It worked.
a well-balanced gyroscope shouldnt take too much power to keep spinning, and will hold itself stationary as a boat rocks back and forth... of course, as you try to extract more power, the boat tends to rock less... the sweet spot being when you can hold it back to half the swing it would otherwise perform.
Keeping the barnacles and fouling growth controlled is going to be a continuous war. Ask any sea ship company. The inertial mass as the driver for the return stroke is smart. The nice shiny slides etc. and complex gear box strike me as long term maintenance issues though. I am watching this with interest.
@@AndyGneiss That wont work unless we totally abandon the oceans and shores. Storms cause shipwrecks and blow structures/materials from the shore into the sea. Seagulls will ravish garbage-bins once they have learned there is a chance of food there. And they are messy foragers. This will also end up in the sea.
@@KrustyKlown I don't think anyone would go to the trouble of designing, engineering, installing and testing something like this, which they have already done, if they didn't have a plan for salt water and corrosion.
A few thoughts; 1. The idea is brilliant and it is a direction we all should investigate. Harvesting Sun and Moon’s energy directly is the most environmentally friendly methods. 2. Like many new/ old ideas, they will require time to mature the technology/ engineering to become an everyday thing. Train was, airplane was and cars were all discarded with their humble beginning. 3. There are many engineering challenges. Survivability is not just short term but also a long term issue. There are power plants that has been running for decades, not many sea vessels have a lifespan longer than 40 years. Composite hulls tend to last less (glass fibre tents to last 15-25 years) and they tend to leak fine glass particles to surrounding areas when they deteriorate over time, which is another cause for concern. Some people commented on foul growth, namely barnacles, the outside growth may have less impact but internal growth (they can grow inside too) and subsequent crushing may lead to particle (many of beach sands are crushed sea shells) interference with the gear mechanism and generator. As we all know, water, dust and electricity does not go well with each other. 4. Debris impact etc does not concern me as much, as we can come up with simple structures to protect the buoy. On the other hand, the buoy can be placed near hazardous shipping routes with small lights on top to guide ships. All in all, these are more manageable issues. 5. The real problem is cost. Also fluctuation of power generation. The biggest set back of current renewable energy ideas is the unpredictable power generation and weather dependency. To my best and humble knowledge, sea has its own seasons. Obviously, they will choose the best site for installation yet seasonality is part of nature we cannot control or change. It is surprising that they did not mention about it. 6. Finally, previous experience with multi billion dollar wind farm left me baffled with inefficiencies and limitations. This direction appears a lot more promising than many of the wind farm or solar farm ideas.
3.) How do the barnacles get on the inside? I'd think if they sealed the chamber off to let no water in then it would also prevent barnacles from getting inside. 7.) I also think there's some environmental concerns. Like won't this mess with whales or something? I can't imagine it would be particularly good for them. And also removing energy from waves, especially relatively near the shore, will probably have unforeseen impacts on a lot of things.
My consulting firm worked on a small buoy power generator system some years ago for pacific island/atoll deployment. Designing for the ‘100 year wave’ was a significant challenge. Rather than place the expensive generator in the buoy with a risk of it being lost if the buoy should break free, it was designed to be placed on the sea bed. This made cable to shore management much simpler. In turn, they buoy could then be manufactured much more simple and much less expensive. Onshape is a great tool.
Is your system still in place and generating electricity? Proof of long term survival and continued functionality over time in the environment is the ultimate test.
You don't need to design for continued operation in the 100-year event, just survival. You could simplify the challenge by accepting that the system will shut down in events larger than the 10-year event. That would mean it's forced to cease operation due to bad conditions only once every 10 years on average, which seems perfectly acceptable to me.
The best thing about this system is that the corrosive environment is totally sealed out of both the electrical AND mechanical components, ensuring a long and reliable life. Brilliant!
One major problem with many wave-driven generators or anything in relatively slow-moving water is barnacles weighing everything down over time or interfering with moving parts. Anything you permanently install at sea that requires buoyancy or exposed underwater moving parts will likely need to have the barnacles periodically scraped off and an anti-stick coating re-applied.
@@barneyrubble4293 Barnacles increase drag, which increases side loads that the whole system has to withstand through the whole range of oceanic currents, wave roughness and operating loads. It also adds vertical drag which increases the up/down loads the mechanism has to bear. Buoys rely on buoyancy to apply upward force and barnacles weighing the shell down would reduce available net buoyancy, reducing peak power production. Scraping the pole to prevent barnacles from stacking on it only solves a small part of the barnacle problem. The part of the reciprocating pole that gets regularly used in operation would get scraped by the entry point shields and seals anyway.
@@teardowndan5364Barnacles are neutrally bouyant and on the external lmao; so don’t affect your bouyant force balance revise how you think Bouyancy works, you’ve gotten it very wrong Also given biomimetic tubercle designs have had different aerodynamic properties than expected; you can’t assume there’s a negative effect on drag either numbnuts
In fact, nothing bad will happen if it is well designed and what you say will not happen. Do not portray the “moving parts” as if they are a bad thing. The mechanism has been known for a long time and it is a smooth and strong sliding mechanism, so no “scraping” will occur. . By the way, everything on the beaches, including barnacles, can attach to anything, even if it is a rubber board. But it may be possible to isolate the mechanism so that it can perform its function without being affected by the surrounding environment.
Just realized they do not have a stand alone cad design program, anything you create on their site they can steal from you. not a smart place to be working on inventions or idea's you don't want stolen.
@@LombardiDegrada If somebody can see or get access to something you are designing... you will be robbed 100%, they do it in the music industry and other industries. if you're not wealthy to start with or from wealth, you will be robbed of whatever you create if somebody gets access to it.
@@qnbits I have solidworks, what I am saying about the program in this video, this is the type of thing the wealthy and US gov are involved in collecting anything and everything the peasants create and stealing it, music industry is like that. I would never design anything you don't want them to have on a website. Crooked SOBs in the US gov and elite circles.
The wave action is used to displace a weight. The moving weight is what powers the generator. The generator is going to be difficult to spin. This means the weight has to be very heavy and hence very large. The lever system also has to be large to create a large movement of the weight. This makes the unit end up needing to be huge. Wind turbines also have these same engineering realities. They need to be as large as it is possible for humans to actually bolt them together.
@@truthboomertruthbomber5125 no it has more to do with extractable energy. The larger the displacement the more of the wave's energy can be extracted. Same with wind turbines, the larger the swept area, the more energy they can collect. It's perfect easy (actually quite a bit easier) to manufacture and assemble smaller devices.
Each of your episodes is jam-packed with interesting information I didn't know I wanted to know! Always a pleasure to watch; I expect your channel to do VERY well! Thanks for your efforts!
Thanks for this video! Extremely well done and thoughtful. I would think another advantage of wave energy is it's fairly steady with a much lower level of intermittency than wind or solar. Maybe not quite good enough to call it a reliable base load, but I would think pretty close.
Interesting design, I hope it passes the installation tests. I really like the image near the end of the video of mixed offshore wind and the CorPower buoys. Why not fill the space between giant wind towers (where reasonable) with more power generation that can share the infrastructure to get the power ashore.
Nice description, it looks like a promising design. I've been interested in wave power for a long time, there's so much of it, and most people live along coasts. The trick is good mooring seafloor attachment and stopping corrosion. Logistically these look good, drop and tow.
Saltwater + greater physical stresses than high altitude wind are no small problems to fix. It's a matter of getting high enough output for a given length of time before the degradation of the hardware sets in. aka return on investment (ROI) is the biggest issue.
@@mnomadvfx 100% agree I'm looking at this thing going that a lot of moving parts and seals in harsh environment doubt it last more than a year before needing a major rebuild. This is the problem with all wave power systems that i've seen proposed. the ocean is corrosive and full of debris and to extract energy from you have to have moving parts exposed the the water combined with wave power be cyclical in nature makes fatigue damage a guarantee. I they had the tech to solve these fundamental problems they would be selling it to mining and oil companies and be making lot more money than making power generators.
Best video on the topic I`ve seen! You have done your homework here (not to mention your other videos)! And that`s coming from someone who was involved with wave energy for 15 years! I do think that CorPower is hands-down the winner in this niche, however I cannot see it competing with Floating Offshore Wind as the interest, money, and O&G experience has shifted there in part because of all the repeated overpormises and ego-driven failures of the WE industry in the past 50 years. Let`s hope CorPower can break the trend! At this point we need all the renewable electricity we can get. One thing that you did not mention (but which of course is repeated ad nauseam by propoenents is that wave energy is less intermittant than wind or solar. And where did you get the LCOE figure at 10:25 from? Keep up the good work!
These can easily be placed within (long) swimming distance of a shoreline where marine traffic is a non issue. Also serves as a good "hey, beachgoers, stay inside the bouys" kinda reminder. California should be all over this.
No issues with harming marine or avian wildlife either. That's been a concern for bladed wind & wave energy extractors. The bouy design also looks like it's pretty well protected against corrosion, but I guess we shall see if that bears out.
Not to mention scuba divers that are more adventurous will want to go and and treat it like a tourist attraction. As long as you're not trying to surface near the buoys its safe ish. But no more dangerous than going into a wreck.
@@HelloNotMe9999 yet we seem to get planty of practice. I remember some reckless divers that went in a fiberglass, carbon fiber, they didnt follow any safety criteria for their submersible, yet they sure did avoid unaliving themselves too right.Oh wait. There's pieces of them next to the Titanic. So your theory falls like a lead weight, I should know IM A DIVER TOO. 😁 Point is you owe me a beer when someone starts diving next to those wave generator's.
This is such a revolutionary innovation ❤....I was thinking if we want to build a 1000 km long bridge through sea to carry heavy loads; But the problem was arising that the bridge need support pillars to be stable throughout such a long distance. And building typical support pillars under deep sea is very expensive. So, to counter that I thought to use floating bases with supporting pillars on them. But there was another problem with floating bases was it's turbulence due to heavy sea waves and currents. I thought of several ways to counter that and fix the bases on their position again any kind of heavy waves: (1)Using heavy weights working as anchors tied with bases.With this (2)using seismic metamaterials....but it turnedout too expensive(3) Then I got this idea from your video!!❤ This is such a genius strategy!!! It will not only just provide stability to the bases but also harness energy from the waves to provide electricity on the bridge. So, thanks a lot for making this amazing video. ❤ keep it up.👍
The system seems well designed. However, I have some doubts about the longevity as there are a lot of parts in it that may all be susceptible to corrosion and wear. And a footer like this has to be really sturdy to withstand high wind load.
@@speedy01247 Iam not dismissal but im tired of those new revolutionary game changing word breaking energy source and is always dud. On paper everything is great in reality most of ideas are unviable. If is too good to be true and you know the rest. Like those nuclear batteries few months ago. Look i hope it work but those hyperbole and big words even before it is tested just irks me to no end. Same like that fusion reactor everybody is talking is around corner but didn't say the silent part the important one. Yes we can build fusion reactor right now but it will be very short lived endeavour because we lack one critical component the material that can whistand that tremendous radiation inside reactor that will change and destroy any known material we have which is the actual problem and we don't know when and even if such material even exist or can be created. So no its not beyond the corner.
@@Hybridog ONE buoy was tested and analysis is ongoing. Here is the thing they are promising too good numbers and iam sceptic this isnt first or second time something new revolutionary is presented and was dud. First thing is where they want to deploy planed 20 000 buoys it will littler the was are and made it unusable, then how do you transfer electricity from those bouoys to grid? spider web of hundreds of miles in ocean? and then who and how will service those things? Also their peak electricity production is 850 kwh which is 20 average houses a day but this is not sustained production so average will be less. So in this form and numbers its not enough for scale and issues it will present.
Great video Ryan. I've not seen a natural energy harvester design quite like this before, very clever! I feel like there's a recurring theme of mimicking/getting inspiration from natural things within engineering (in this case the heart). Also, whilst the aesthetics of large wind turbines in the ocean is subjective... there's no debate that these have a far smaller visual footprint, and in my opinion are therefore much less intrusive of the landscape visually.
I had this idea too about 15 years ago, so I calculated the maximum yield during a vacation on Tenerife (I have a Masters degree in mechanical engineering). The waves around Tenerife look great, but even there they're about 2m high and arrive every 10s. To catch the top of a wave efficiently, the diameter of the buoi maxes out at around 3m. This resulted in about 5kW power per buoi, so you need about 1000 buois to generate as much as 1 off-shore wind turbine. This is why I gave up on the idea...
The offshore turbines installed at Dogger bank A and B is 13Mw each. GE Haliade-X 13. Dogger Bank C and later will be 14Mw each. The blades are 107meter on a 220meter rotor.
Agreed. Care to estimate the energy with the approximate dimensions of this buoy? I find the article quoted figures / gains highly questionable. I'm also not impressed with the phasing explanation / mechanism. Regretfully nothing here convinces me of a significant advance rather an attempt by a failing start-up to profit from a higher profile. It's a shame, I don't assocaite this site with click-bait titles.
@@Twistedpaolumuhello and thank you for sharing your wisdom -- blades as long as one football field? Yes? Really? I'm speechless 😶 🤐 please elaborate so I can get researching and learning, thank you.
A low LCOE is nice but I wish you looked into the capacity factor. If it's higher than wind power then it could be a game changer as it lowers the need for batteries.
Great video. The potential energy in waves is so huge. Additionally, enough wave energy devices could potentially help with storm surges too. Although that hypothesis may prove unattainable. In short, once wave energy technology is reliable and financially feasible, it'll be a game changer. Very little need for any other energy sources.
Yes, except that I don’t think you can reasonably expect to send energy from the ocean all the way to the center of a continent. Electricity can’t travel that far.
Thanks for sharing, always found wave energy an interesting technology. Living in Central New York I’ve often thought it would be a good addition to our power supply mix if it was to be implemented in Lake Ontario. It a very choppy lake with plenty of available power without the complexity of being in sea water. I’m sure other Great Lakes would likely be just as likely for successful systems like this.
Also in Denmark we have tried to make systems for wave energy. None has made it past Project state! We depend on the still larger windmills now built in the North Sea and intended to make huge islands far out, with farms of mills producing absurd amounts of electricity!
In the vast expanse where oceans roar, A revolution breaks upon the shore. CorPower's buoy, with ingenuity rare, Unlocks the power of waves with flair. Inspired by nature's timeless design, It harnesses energy, a feat divine. With bio-inspired engineering in its stride, It rides the waves, a renewable tide. Three times more energy, it deftly extracts, From ocean swells, in rhythmic acts. A beacon of hope in the quest for green, It paints a future, serene and clean. No longer bound by winds that blow, Or sunbeams that come and go, Wave energy rises, a force untamed, A beacon of progress, forever acclaimed. With costs set to plummet, as innovation soars, CorPower's buoy opens untapped doors. A new standard in renewable might, Shining brightly in sustainability's light. So let us hail this wave-powered dream, A vision of tomorrow, where possibilities gleam. For in the heart of the ocean's embrace, Lies the promise of a greener, brighter space.
The Achilles heel of renewal energy calculations is maintenance and decommission cost. Usually these wind, solar and wave technologies are in the mercy of weather and their live span is short, 15-25 years in real life. They are installed on hard to reach places thus making both costs high. For some reason, decommissioning costs are not taken in to account, even though they matter more with these compared to most fossil and nuclear plants with 50+ year life.
In this particular application we (the U.S.A.) already have a great deal of expertise for maintenance on-site as the USCG and NOAA have been managing offshore navigation and weather data buoys for at least half a century. Aside from size difference a fleet of buoy tenders based on existing models could probably handle deployment and capture for repair and decommissioning.
Australia has a working device generating 200Mw. The Uniwave200 project sits on the sea floor and works like a blowhole, using air to spin the turbine. It has very few moving parts and is patented. It could be installed on or near any seawall
VERY interesting. Promising! You say the pneumatic system works with "air instead of fluid." Air IS fluid. In common usage, sometimes fluid DOES mean liquid as opposed to solid or gas, but this is a science and technology channel so it seems right to stick to the more exact usage. Sorry to nitpick. But I really like this video and your other work as well. Thanks! From Wiktionary: Noun fluid (countable and uncountable, plural fluids) 1) Any substance which can flow with relative ease, tends to assume the shape of its container, and obeys Bernoulli's principle; a liquid, gas or plasma. [How I suggest the term be used in science and tech pieces] 2) A liquid (as opposed to a solid or gas). [How the term was used in this video] 3)(specifically, medicine, colloquial, typically in the plural) Intravenous fluids.
*"Air IS fluid"* I was surprised I had to scroll so far to find this comment. For a science education channel, this is really annoying error. As you say, bot liquids and gasses are fluids. I wouldn't say you were nitpicking. I think you found a fully grown louse.
A large array must have a moderating effect. This is an upside in terms of coastal erosion but it also is a downside for the relative positioning of buoys in a large array. Presumably if the proximity of the buoys would need to take account of this and would determine the area needed for the wave power "farm".
This is without a doubt my favorite wave energy concept. I really hope that the ideas that are promising just get funding and they start giving it a go because I'm so tired of seeing great advancements but everyone only talks about the money aspects holding it back from happening.. If we don't start making new things and putting money into them, then of course fossil fuel companies will continue to argue that their option is best and cheapest. I wish we could commit to modern advanced nuclear energy options as well
It's all a matter of corruption, and paradoxically, the more corrupt the better. For example, wind power is so unprofitable and bad for the environment that no wind project would ever be built anywhere without subsidies and kickbacks and middlemen in the political process - hence why it's built mostly in the EU, which has the biggest governments. Wind costs $150 per MWh without subsidies and that's after gaining scaling efficiency from decades of deployment. But it gets built everywhere... Proof, make it corrupt and business problems won't matter.
This is one of the best videos about Wave energy. CorPower is an invention based on trusted and well handeled theory. This is uncommon with most other wave energy videos. However CorPowers technology is based on a very sophisticated working principle, with constantly tuned mass damper. Most people will not be able to understand why CorPower is more efficient than most other wave energy converters. I am a machine engineer, but must admit that the working principle is beyond my understanding. But have been told by an expert that CorPower is one of a very few projects that may succeed. I dont expect wave energy to be a commercial succes ever. But I have a very short list of the two most promising projects: Wave Piston and CorPower. All other projects are without any chance of succes. And are just a vaste of money and time.
The biggest challenge of energy generation is energy transport. You lose a lot of power with range, it is actually a ridiculous amount. Putting devices out in the ocean will generate lots of power, but by the time the cables reach the shore you lose most of it. Therefore, innovative ways need to be used here.
You totally overstate the worry about transmission losses. For example HVDC losses are about 3.5% per 1000kilometres, so we could transmit solar/wind from the Moroccan desert to the southern UK with around only 12% losses.
Great video. Also some brilliant comments. I suspect it needs an annual clean. This could be achieved by some sort of robotic collar and improvements to anti fouling possibly. Also the exterior should be some material that's durable but breaks down into something that is environmentally friendly. Cool.
@@DreadX10 what bugs me is that planes worked perfectly well for decades being made from aluminium sheet held together with pop-rivets... no trouble scrapping them at end of life... easy to make, too. hmmm... lightweight, aerodynamic structure, can be shipped as a flat pack and assembled on site? nah! lets use "space age cutting edge sophisticated high tech optimally engineered advanced composite structural materials" that we can make in remote factories then ship via massive trucks through torturous routes... then leave in massive piles or festering skeletons on a hillside or in landfill... whilst "technology improves and we can reclaim the valuable resources"... only around the corner! just a few more years! dont get me started on the power generation side of them... imho, you could replace the boilers of an existing coal or similar station with a few properly placed turbines, use them to generate and store heat at maximum efficiency regardless of windspeeds or demand... but whatever... lets use inverters, batteries, brakes, and limit ourselves to trying to match an erratic (albeit plentiful) supply to a varying demand... thats "industry leading engineering"...
@@DreadX10 I found at least five methods of recycling blades when I looked into it. The fallback method is to grind up and insert into cement making furnaces. The leading blade manufacturers are developing recyclable composites for the blades so the resins can be separated out at end of life. Expect this soon to be a non-problem.
With placement in the vicinity of offshore rock outcrops and shoals that are already hazards to navigation these buoys could serve a dual purpose as aids to navigation. A government/private partnership would defray some of the costs involved in deployment and maintenance.
Brilliant engineering and very well explained. The big problem with wave energy, like wind power, is that it isn't predictable. There are sometimes long periods of calm. That is why tidal stream energy is so much better. As long as the moon keeps going round the earth the tides flow around our coasts twice a day.
@@biondanishgenomeinstitute8193 I see, you would need to put these devices in a mode where they pushed back against the waves without breaking in order to do that, and the more surface area they had the better they'd work; currently when there are big waves the device disengages so it doesn't break and they're designed to float, more than fight the waves. Your analogy is also flawed because oil on water is adding surface tension. There is another issue: where waves grow the most is probably closer to the coast than these devices will be anchored.
I came here looking for a design I saw a long time ago where a cup was placed face down on the sea level creating a hermetic seal and inside of the cup was a proppeller that captured the internal winds forming due to the ebb and flow of the waves.
I got a wave power idea: I comprises of a large pill shaped float (the size of a small house) that is half full of water. It's attached to a strong arm (like a cistern float) and on a pier above the water level. Where there are two disc shaped generators (like on some direct drive wind turbines) with one for upstroke and one for downstroke. The water in the pill shaped float does the downstrokes. It's basically just one moving part and built strong, should last a while without much maintainence. Also have easily replacement of wearing parts to keep maintainence cost down. And it should be possible to empty the water and raise the float in wild weather conditions. And refilling to half full should not be too difficult autonomously. It's about half full to make the upstroke and downstroke the same power and also making the maximum downstroke power, with the same power upstroke. Obviously way less than half full when you include it's empty weight. But the combined weight would be half of the buoyancy of the air inside the float. That's what I would technically mean by "half full". I like it cos it would seem to be rugged, powerful and low maintenance. I tend to shy away from gears and sliding pumps etc. Too many parts for wave power cos of the inherent high maintenance. They go for ever without stopping, continually wearing for ever! Designers have to keep that in mind when designing waver power systems. As soon as I saw the direct drive wind turbines I immediately started work on my design, being stoked about direct driver generators for wave power! 😅 They are slow RPM and only one moving part. A win, win for wave power! 😅
Since waves get there energy from the lunar interaction with earth that causes tides, if we take buoy energy to the exteme and fill the ocean with them, isnt there a danger of causing unintended side effects in the same way that planets that are interacting through gravity can steal spin energy from each other? the buoys get their energy from the waves, the waves get it from the tides, the tides get it from gravitational interaction with the moon, so the buoy energy is essentially sapping the energy of the gravitational interaction of the earth and moon.
The bouys are still on earth, so no, it doesn’t affect the tides. Unless by tide you mean the wave. The wave must now push up against the bouy. It becomes a smaller wave. I guess that’s it. Helps against erosion?
All the energy from the lunar interaction will turn to heat-energy eventually. These buoys will grab some of that former 'lunar energy', convert it to electricity and then it will become heat-energy when the electricity is used. The end-result is the same. So it is a 'use it or loose it anyway' situation.
Are there estimations from third parties about the system's potential effects (during long term operation, not just installation) on marine life? And can anything dislodge the anchoring system (e.g. earthquakes)? Now regarding actual practicality: Half of my small country and ~90% of its population are by the sea, and calculating the very peak power generation of these (the average is not quoted) against an average yearly electricity consumption here (as if excess power from times of lower consumption can be stored) we would require over 4,000 buoys in operation. Calculated for real time peak electricity consumption during the summer results in 25,000 buoys required. Considering the peak power generation could very well be double the average, I can't imagine having 10,000 such giant buoys along our ~170km shoreline in order to possibly replace all other energy production methods (again, with a hypothetical energy storage method, as covering peaks in real time would require many more tens of thousands). I can't even imagine these supplementing just 25% of our energy requirements as that would still require around 20 buoys per kilometer throughout the entire shoreline.
Seems like a great idea. It will live or die by LCOE (mentioned around 9:00 ). The cost per MWh they claim is at least kinda interesting, particularly if they can get the cost down at scale.
As long as it's cheaper than fossil fuels, and doesn't kill as many people as fossil fuels, then it's useful. We get the majority of our electricity from Cole currently, even though coal is quite a bit more expensive than natural gas. 🤷♂️
Really... a mass of gears? what is wrong with just one moving permanent magnet acting as a piston through the EM fields of some copper windings creating an electrical charge, much cheaper to manufacture, certainly less wear and tear and less maintenance
A slow varying magnetic field makes it more difficult to capture and convert the energy. First you don't want to work with low voltages, high currents, low frequencies, it's inefficient with power electronics involved in rectification and inverters. There will be losses of energy and a higher cost. Then there's the problem of converting all the mechanical energy by induction with that slow moving magnet. This will require A LOT more copper for the coil and a complex magnetic core for efficiency. This is somewhat analogue to being on a bicycle on a low gear while slowly climbing uphill. Legs get tired faster because the biological energy conversion is inefficient at high torque. And there will be more losses and wear in the bike transmission. Also we try to reduce the use of permanent magnets because of rare earths. But perhaps the linear generator could work without just like rotating ones can.
I had an idea for a wave generator system when I first saw one of those "octopus" amusement park rides in operation. I realized immediately that if a barge/comparment was perched atop a smart network of floating footpods, the wave action could drive pistons that could siphon off energy.
The massive elephant in the room here is that unlike wind and solar, wave doesn't scale at all. You can't make the floats bigger because for the same reason as a big ship gives smoother sailing, a big float will bridge across waves and no longer move up and down with them at all, so they're stuck at one size, so lose out on the economies of scale wind turbines have been benefiting from for decades. If they have to install 20 GW before economies of scale are competitive with the cost of wind and solar right now (And these figures are going down continuously, especially solar), they've literally got nothing worth anyone's investment for commercial power generation.
This is an efficient and well thought out design🏆 🤔My question is how does it deal with “fouling” (growth of marine organisms) on the sliding cylinders, I can see how constant friction would deter accumulation, but what about the low areas that would only be traveled on with high oscillating waves❓
Some people are commenting about barnicles and other sea life things that like to stick onto surfaces like boat hulls, it's a fair point and I was wondering if there's any "no maintenance/minimal maintenance" and if not, what would the costs be to have divers clean the bouys? Also if this whole system becomes wide spread, would that not create jobs for diving cleaners?
There are more than a few firms who've gotten traction, although not being from the US, I can see why you may not have heard of Ocean Power Technologies , Eco Wave Power , CalWave or Oscilla Power. The quest for profitability from any of these wave power firms remains elusive.
It would be interesting to hear about how the units deal with tidal shifts. With the rigid mooring systems, it appears that they only work at a set depth. That would mean that with a high tide or a low tide, the units would be inoperable due to being over extended/retracted and would just lock in place. There would have to me some way of controlling the length of the mooring rod connecting the units to the seabed and I don't remember this being covered by the video.
How does the system handle the lateral forces of the ocean waves? Does the anchor or spring pneumatic system inside the buoy damped these forces and only allow vertical motion?
Looks a much simpler and self-contained solution than many. If they can be successfully attached to the sea bed, maintenance could be quite low. A ship with a crane could just up lift for on-land refurbishment and attach a newly serviced unit. I wonder in what depth they can be deployed?
Seals, bushings, corrosion on the rods and water intrusion seems like it would be an ongoing concern. The points about barnacles mentioned earlier as well.
Very nice. What about tides, waves work at different heights all the time - does the tether need to change lengths all the time? Or it just works at high tide?
Tides are consistent and can be accurately forecast, unlike wind or solar energy. However, tidal power generation requires areas with high tidal ranges, and while such areas do exist, they are not common. The next challenge is that tidal power is not constant throughout the day, so you need a method for energy storage.
I think there might be an issue with the mooring system. They vibrate the anchor into the ground but the oscillating motion of the buoy would shift those anchors out of the seafloor. Or at least disconnect the power and disable the buoy. I would wish for them to create a concrete type material that is pumped into and around the Moore to increase density or the contact area where the oscillation can be properly absorbed. I really want to see this work.
Lots of positive things about this technological development. It sounds like you just re-presented press materials from the company. Is there any down side? Who are the competitors and how do they compare?
There's sort of like a perpetual motion taint to wave energy that makes it harder to achieve. Moving water, thats great. Reversing direction, not so great. But with the gearboxes, like an automatic watch, we can engineer past that limitation
Sorry to be pedantic, but around 4:00, you say "uses air instead of fluid". Air is also a fluid. Overall, really great content and animations! Imagine a future when these are fully-developped systems and are a combined floating wind turbine and wave energy harvester, using the same underwater infrastructure.
Lately, I've seen there are five renewable sources of energy competing for when we inevitably run out of fossil fuels (even though we can utilize charcoal for steam, we'll still need to instil the values of replanting trees in lumberjacks to sustain it): 1. Tidal energy plants. 2. Wave energy buoys. 3. Cylindrical wind turbines. 4. Geothermal plants. 5. Nuclear reactors.
With the substantial infrastructure of large wind turbines already working well, perhaps it could be efficient to have one machine that uses wind and wave power, or to have wave power mechanisms that hug the base of existing wind turbines?
It would be good to have a small watermark in the lower left hand corner of any computer generated footage that you use. This will be even more important as the quality of rendered computer generated footage improves over time.
It has a piston that passes through a seal exposed to sea water. There is also a movingnpart at the base on the sea bed, also exposed to sea water. I wonder how well those components will fare tens years down the line? I think the power generating mechanism needs to be fully enclosed.
One challenge I see is how to make all the generators in phase with each other, as they all have to feed the same grid. The phase of the wave under each buoy is not synchronized with that under the other buoys. How did the engineers tackle this problem?
There is a lot of incredible engineering packed into this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! Also, don't forget to check out Onshape for FREE: Onshape.pro/Ziroth - You won't regret giving it a try!
4:07
"Work with air instead of fluid."
Air is a fluid, my guy. Guess meant to say "air instead of *iquid."
Why wouldn't they create a "ring" of them and attach it to the base of the offshore wind towers. That infrastructure is already in the right place - cabling, supports, maintenance schedules ....
Hi thanks great piece as always. Now I realise it's a little off topic for yourself but I was wondering if you could answer a question I've had sfor a long time and have found no answer to on the entire internet. Why is it when a gas lighter is refilled and it's transparent with 2 connected sections only one fills with liquid gas at a time? You have to manually orientated the lighter to move the liquid into the second chamber before then filling the primary a second time? Surely if the chamber are connected pressure would be equal in both? Anyway if you could it may make an interesting side video about liquid gasses under pressure, especially given the hydrogen revolution that's almost certainly about to happen.
My thoughts are you shouldn't court a scientific or engineering type of audience then lie to us and say "200% EFFICIENCY". If you wanted to flog above infinity machines you should have just made AI junk content and courted that audience.
Wouldn't using wind and or wave power cause global warming?
My grandfather made a wave generator on his boat, it was just a generator (electric motor of some sort I think?), with weights and springs. it created electricity when offshore with engines off. It worked.
a well-balanced gyroscope shouldnt take too much power to keep spinning, and will hold itself stationary as a boat rocks back and forth...
of course, as you try to extract more power, the boat tends to rock less... the sweet spot being when you can hold it back to half the swing it would otherwise perform.
There is a difference between working and being worthwhile.
Keeping the barnacles and fouling growth controlled is going to be a continuous war. Ask any sea ship company.
The inertial mass as the driver for the return stroke is smart. The nice shiny slides etc. and complex gear box strike me as long term maintenance issues though. I am watching this with interest.
Not to mention the occasional shipping container (or other debris) drifting into it.
@@DreadX10 Perhaps it will be another reason to push to keep our seas clean. One can hope.
@@AndyGneiss That wont work unless we totally abandon the oceans and shores. Storms cause shipwrecks and blow structures/materials from the shore into the sea.
Seagulls will ravish garbage-bins once they have learned there is a chance of food there. And they are messy foragers. This will also end up in the sea.
I'm wondering how they will reliably seal out the salt water ... those rod seals will fail.
@@KrustyKlown I don't think anyone would go to the trouble of designing, engineering, installing and testing something like this, which they have already done, if they didn't have a plan for salt water and corrosion.
I've been following wave technology for a long time. This looks promising. Excellent presentation as usual.
Thanks Mark that is very kind, this is definitely one to keep an eye on!
Hi...Do you know how wave balls work? The ones used in wave pools.
A few thoughts;
1. The idea is brilliant and it is a direction we all should investigate. Harvesting Sun and Moon’s energy directly is the most environmentally friendly methods.
2. Like many new/ old ideas, they will require time to mature the technology/ engineering to become an everyday thing. Train was, airplane was and cars were all discarded with their humble beginning.
3. There are many engineering challenges. Survivability is not just short term but also a long term issue. There are power plants that has been running for decades, not many sea vessels have a lifespan longer than 40 years. Composite hulls tend to last less (glass fibre tents to last 15-25 years) and they tend to leak fine glass particles to surrounding areas when they deteriorate over time, which is another cause for concern. Some people commented on foul growth, namely barnacles, the outside growth may have less impact but internal growth (they can grow inside too) and subsequent crushing may lead to particle (many of beach sands are crushed sea shells) interference with the gear mechanism and generator. As we all know, water, dust and electricity does not go well with each other.
4. Debris impact etc does not concern me as much, as we can come up with simple structures to protect the buoy. On the other hand, the buoy can be placed near hazardous shipping routes with small lights on top to guide ships. All in all, these are more manageable issues.
5. The real problem is cost. Also fluctuation of power generation. The biggest set back of current renewable energy ideas is the unpredictable power generation and weather dependency. To my best and humble knowledge, sea has its own seasons. Obviously, they will choose the best site for installation yet seasonality is part of nature we cannot control or change. It is surprising that they did not mention about it.
6. Finally, previous experience with multi billion dollar wind farm left me baffled with inefficiencies and limitations. This direction appears a lot more promising than many of the wind farm or solar farm ideas.
"Harvesting Sun and Moon’s energy directly is the most environmentally friendly methods."
What do you mean by *Moon's energy"*
Do you mean the tides?
Yes which alone is sufficient for current energy demand if we can capture a fraction of it.
@@ddegn Really? What about all the land and hardware you need to collect and store this low density energy?
3.) How do the barnacles get on the inside? I'd think if they sealed the chamber off to let no water in then it would also prevent barnacles from getting inside.
7.) I also think there's some environmental concerns. Like won't this mess with whales or something? I can't imagine it would be particularly good for them. And also removing energy from waves, especially relatively near the shore, will probably have unforeseen impacts on a lot of things.
@@Johnsmith-zi9pu I'm guessing your replied to the wrong comment.
My consulting firm worked on a small buoy power generator system some years ago for pacific island/atoll deployment. Designing for the ‘100 year wave’ was a significant challenge. Rather than place the expensive generator in the buoy with a risk of it being lost if the buoy should break free, it was designed to be placed on the sea bed. This made cable to shore management much simpler. In turn, they buoy could then be manufactured much more simple and much less expensive. Onshape is a great tool.
Is your system still in place and generating electricity? Proof of long term survival and continued functionality over time in the environment is the ultimate test.
You don't need to design for continued operation in the 100-year event, just survival. You could simplify the challenge by accepting that the system will shut down in events larger than the 10-year event. That would mean it's forced to cease operation due to bad conditions only once every 10 years on average, which seems perfectly acceptable to me.
I would say, it makes much more sense to have the expensive generator available in the buoy rather than inaccessible on the sea floor.
There is nothing that the sea will not break. Nothing.
@@Deontjie I've seen pretty old mooring buoys
The best thing about this system is that the corrosive environment is totally sealed out of both the electrical AND mechanical components, ensuring a long and reliable life. Brilliant!
That is key, every other ocean based system I have seen would be wrecked by corrosion, or require a significant amount of regular maintenance.
Give it time
It moves up and down it's anchored tether.... So it is exposed.
@@John-ou4rm yeah, I've just had another look and there has to be some kind of seal at the bottom of the buoy... That must be one clever seal.
@@Poult100many car seals have three rubber rings, so if one fails there are two more that hold.
One major problem with many wave-driven generators or anything in relatively slow-moving water is barnacles weighing everything down over time or interfering with moving parts. Anything you permanently install at sea that requires buoyancy or exposed underwater moving parts will likely need to have the barnacles periodically scraped off and an anti-stick coating re-applied.
It moves up and down the shaft, just put a scraper on the bottom that moves with the float up and down. Everything else can be barnacled.
@@barneyrubble4293 Barnacles increase drag, which increases side loads that the whole system has to withstand through the whole range of oceanic currents, wave roughness and operating loads. It also adds vertical drag which increases the up/down loads the mechanism has to bear. Buoys rely on buoyancy to apply upward force and barnacles weighing the shell down would reduce available net buoyancy, reducing peak power production.
Scraping the pole to prevent barnacles from stacking on it only solves a small part of the barnacle problem. The part of the reciprocating pole that gets regularly used in operation would get scraped by the entry point shields and seals anyway.
is that not a biological problem, not a mechanical so it requires a biological soloution
@@teardowndan5364Barnacles are neutrally bouyant and on the external lmao; so don’t affect your bouyant force balance
revise how you think Bouyancy works, you’ve gotten it very wrong
Also given biomimetic tubercle designs have had different aerodynamic properties than expected; you can’t assume there’s a negative effect on drag either numbnuts
In fact, nothing bad will happen if it is well designed and what you say will not happen. Do not portray the “moving parts” as if they are a bad thing. The mechanism has been known for a long time and it is a smooth and strong sliding mechanism, so no “scraping” will occur. . By the way, everything on the beaches, including barnacles, can attach to anything, even if it is a rubber board. But it may be possible to isolate the mechanism so that it can perform its function without being affected by the surrounding environment.
Just realized they do not have a stand alone cad design program, anything you create on their site they can steal from you. not a smart place to be working on inventions or idea's you don't want stolen.
Maybe for something like this it should be considered more open source?
@@LombardiDegrada If somebody can see or get access to something you are designing... you will be robbed 100%, they do it in the music industry and other industries. if you're not wealthy to start with or from wealth, you will be robbed of whatever you create if somebody gets access to it.
Yup it's true it happened to me
@@qnbits I have solidworks, what I am saying about the program in this video, this is the type of thing the wealthy and US gov are involved in collecting anything and everything the peasants create and stealing it, music industry is like that. I would never design anything you don't want them to have on a website. Crooked SOBs in the US gov and elite circles.
Only free users
I did not expect it to be that big, crazy stuff
The wave action is used to displace a weight. The moving weight is what powers the generator. The generator is going to be difficult to spin. This means the weight has to be very heavy and hence very large. The lever system also has to be large to create a large movement of the weight. This makes the unit end up needing to be huge. Wind turbines also have these same engineering realities. They need to be as large as it is possible for humans to actually bolt them together.
@@truthboomertruthbomber5125 no it has more to do with extractable energy. The larger the displacement the more of the wave's energy can be extracted. Same with wind turbines, the larger the swept area, the more energy they can collect. It's perfect easy (actually quite a bit easier) to manufacture and assemble smaller devices.
They have big pockets
What ever is designed to generate rental like power is the rich trying to squeeze the working class.
Each of your episodes is jam-packed with interesting information I didn't know I wanted to know! Always a pleasure to watch; I expect your channel to do VERY well! Thanks for your efforts!
Excellent breakdown of the C4's engineering and testing. Your ability to make these technical topics engaging is outstanding!
Thanks for this video! Extremely well done and thoughtful. I would think another advantage of wave energy is it's fairly steady with a much lower level of intermittency than wind or solar. Maybe not quite good enough to call it a reliable base load, but I would think pretty close.
Also most population centers are near the sea.
Thank you Ziroth. The engineering looks like a lot of fun for this engineer.
Wow, that is the best solution for sea wave energy I ever saw
"I ever sea"
Google Oscillating Water Column.
@@drillerdev4624 I sea Watt you did there.
@@drillerdev4624 I sea the grammar nazsea's have arrived
Well done. Good content. Good video length choice. On the strength of this I'll definitely take a look at your other videos.
Thank you!
Interesting design, I hope it passes the installation tests. I really like the image near the end of the video of mixed offshore wind and the CorPower buoys. Why not fill the space between giant wind towers (where reasonable) with more power generation that can share the infrastructure to get the power ashore.
Surely that would bring the levelised cost down. Unless they have already factored that in
if you have to maintain the towers using a ship, you wouldn't want buoys getting in the way.
Nice description, it looks like a promising design. I've been interested in wave power for a long time, there's so much of it, and most people live along coasts. The trick is good mooring seafloor attachment and stopping corrosion. Logistically these look good, drop and tow.
Didn’t know wave energy had been investigated for so long
It was a surprise to me too, a longer pursuit than fusion 😅
@@ZirothTech “always 200 years away”
@@_spartan11796 lul
Saltwater + greater physical stresses than high altitude wind are no small problems to fix.
It's a matter of getting high enough output for a given length of time before the degradation of the hardware sets in.
aka return on investment (ROI) is the biggest issue.
@@mnomadvfx 100% agree I'm looking at this thing going that a lot of moving parts and seals in harsh environment doubt it last more than a year before needing a major rebuild. This is the problem with all wave power systems that i've seen proposed. the ocean is corrosive and full of debris and to extract energy from you have to have moving parts exposed the the water combined with wave power be cyclical in nature makes fatigue damage a guarantee. I they had the tech to solve these fundamental problems they would be selling it to mining and oil companies and be making lot more money than making power generators.
Best video on the topic I`ve seen! You have done your homework here (not to mention your other videos)! And that`s coming from someone who was involved with wave energy for 15 years! I do think that CorPower is hands-down the winner in this niche, however I cannot see it competing with Floating Offshore Wind as the interest, money, and O&G experience has shifted there in part because of all the repeated overpormises and ego-driven failures of the WE industry in the past 50 years. Let`s hope CorPower can break the trend! At this point we need all the renewable electricity we can get. One thing that you did not mention (but which of course is repeated ad nauseam by propoenents is that wave energy is less intermittant than wind or solar. And where did you get the LCOE figure at 10:25 from? Keep up the good work!
These can easily be placed within (long) swimming distance of a shoreline where marine traffic is a non issue. Also serves as a good "hey, beachgoers, stay inside the bouys" kinda reminder. California should be all over this.
No issues with harming marine or avian wildlife either. That's been a concern for bladed wind & wave energy extractors. The bouy design also looks like it's pretty well protected against corrosion, but I guess we shall see if that bears out.
Not to mention scuba divers that are more adventurous will want to go and and treat it like a tourist attraction. As long as you're not trying to surface near the buoys its safe ish.
But no more dangerous than going into a wreck.
@@anarex0929 Divers are generally pretty cautious people. I am one myself. We generally try not do things that will unalive ourselves at depth…
By taking some energy out of the waves we should expect a (probably small) reduction in the impact of waves on the shoreline.
@@HelloNotMe9999 yet we seem to get planty of practice.
I remember some reckless divers that went in a fiberglass, carbon fiber, they didnt follow any safety criteria for their submersible, yet they sure did avoid unaliving themselves too right.Oh wait. There's pieces of them next to the Titanic. So your theory falls like a lead weight, I should know IM A DIVER TOO. 😁
Point is you owe me a beer when someone starts diving next to those wave generator's.
I love engineering just like you do SIR. Job well done too.
This is such a revolutionary innovation ❤....I was thinking if we want to build a 1000 km long bridge through sea to carry heavy loads; But the problem was arising that the bridge need support pillars to be stable throughout such a long distance. And building typical support pillars under deep sea is very expensive. So, to counter that I thought to use floating bases with supporting pillars on them. But there was another problem with floating bases was it's turbulence due to heavy sea waves and currents. I thought of several ways to counter that and fix the bases on their position again any kind of heavy waves: (1)Using heavy weights working as anchors tied with bases.With this (2)using seismic metamaterials....but it turnedout too expensive(3) Then I got this idea from your video!!❤
This is such a genius strategy!!! It will not only just provide stability to the bases but also harness energy from the waves to provide electricity on the bridge. So, thanks a lot for making this amazing video. ❤ keep it up.👍
The system seems well designed. However, I have some doubts about the longevity as there are a lot of parts in it that may all be susceptible to corrosion and wear. And a footer like this has to be really sturdy to withstand high wind load.
thats the point of testing, its important to be cautious but not foolish either in dismissal or acceptance.
@@speedy01247 Iam not dismissal but im tired of those new revolutionary game changing word breaking energy source and is always dud. On paper everything is great in reality most of ideas are unviable. If is too good to be true and you know the rest. Like those nuclear batteries few months ago. Look i hope it work but those hyperbole and big words even before it is tested just irks me to no end. Same like that fusion reactor everybody is talking is around corner but didn't say the silent part the important one. Yes we can build fusion reactor right now but it will be very short lived endeavour because we lack one critical component the material that can whistand that tremendous radiation inside reactor that will change and destroy any known material we have which is the actual problem and we don't know when and even if such material even exist or can be created. So no its not beyond the corner.
@@Pedgo1986 It has been tested.
@@Hybridog ONE buoy was tested and analysis is ongoing. Here is the thing they are promising too good numbers and iam sceptic this isnt first or second time something new revolutionary is presented and was dud. First thing is where they want to deploy planed 20 000 buoys it will littler the was are and made it unusable, then how do you transfer electricity from those bouoys to grid? spider web of hundreds of miles in ocean? and then who and how will service those things? Also their peak electricity production is 850 kwh which is 20 average houses a day but this is not sustained production so average will be less. So in this form and numbers its not enough for scale and issues it will present.
Corrosion is the actual issue! Ocean isn’t so forgiving.
Great video Ryan. I've not seen a natural energy harvester design quite like this before, very clever! I feel like there's a recurring theme of mimicking/getting inspiration from natural things within engineering (in this case the heart).
Also, whilst the aesthetics of large wind turbines in the ocean is subjective... there's no debate that these have a far smaller visual footprint, and in my opinion are therefore much less intrusive of the landscape visually.
I had this idea too about 15 years ago, so I calculated the maximum yield during a vacation on Tenerife (I have a Masters degree in mechanical engineering). The waves around Tenerife look great, but even there they're about 2m high and arrive every 10s. To catch the top of a wave efficiently, the diameter of the buoi maxes out at around 3m. This resulted in about 5kW power per buoi, so you need about 1000 buois to generate as much as 1 off-shore wind turbine. This is why I gave up on the idea...
The offshore turbines installed at Dogger bank A and B is 13Mw each. GE Haliade-X 13. Dogger Bank C and later will be 14Mw each.
The blades are 107meter on a 220meter rotor.
I see in the video he put the output per buoy at 600 kw.
Yeah, showing off shore wind turbines while referring to 15+ year old wind turbine specs is a bit off-putting.
Agreed. Care to estimate the energy with the approximate dimensions of this buoy? I find the article quoted figures / gains highly questionable. I'm also not impressed with the phasing explanation / mechanism. Regretfully nothing here convinces me of a significant advance rather an attempt by a failing start-up to profit from a higher profile. It's a shame, I don't assocaite this site with click-bait titles.
@@Twistedpaolumuhello and thank you for sharing your wisdom -- blades as long as one football field? Yes? Really? I'm speechless 😶 🤐 please elaborate so I can get researching and learning, thank you.
I like the way the engineer designed the wave movement linkages with smooth fluid motion to create power with the generators
A low LCOE is nice but I wish you looked into the capacity factor. If it's higher than wind power then it could be a game changer as it lowers the need for batteries.
Such an incredible technology! Thanks for another great video!
Great video. The potential energy in waves is so huge. Additionally, enough wave energy devices could potentially help with storm surges too. Although that hypothesis may prove unattainable. In short, once wave energy technology is reliable and financially feasible, it'll be a game changer. Very little need for any other energy sources.
Yes, except that I don’t think you can reasonably expect to send energy from the ocean all the way to the center of a continent. Electricity can’t travel that far.
@@Candyapplebone
It can travel far.Problem is losses in the systems actually used and if is worth economically because of these losses.
Thanks for sharing, always found wave energy an interesting technology. Living in Central New York I’ve often thought it would be a good addition to our power supply mix if it was to be implemented in Lake Ontario. It a very choppy lake with plenty of available power without the complexity of being in sea water. I’m sure other Great Lakes would likely be just as likely for successful systems like this.
May I suggest more random distribution and some long- necked sea bird puppet head? This is obviously for aesthetics.Loved the article and thanks.
Turn it into a massive 'drinking bird'.
this is the best comment post ever!
great video ! thanks Rick
Also in Denmark we have tried to make systems for wave energy. None has made it past Project state! We depend on the still larger windmills now built in the North Sea and intended to make huge islands far out, with farms of mills producing absurd amounts of electricity!
Really great, well worth a watch. I lookfoward to see acres of these around the UK underneath the wind turbines
Now that's a smart solution. Hope it takes off!
Great video I really enjoy this information! Also the whole time my ears heard you say "Boy" instead of "Buoy." xD
In the vast expanse where oceans roar,
A revolution breaks upon the shore.
CorPower's buoy, with ingenuity rare,
Unlocks the power of waves with flair.
Inspired by nature's timeless design,
It harnesses energy, a feat divine.
With bio-inspired engineering in its stride,
It rides the waves, a renewable tide.
Three times more energy, it deftly extracts,
From ocean swells, in rhythmic acts.
A beacon of hope in the quest for green,
It paints a future, serene and clean.
No longer bound by winds that blow,
Or sunbeams that come and go,
Wave energy rises, a force untamed,
A beacon of progress, forever acclaimed.
With costs set to plummet, as innovation soars,
CorPower's buoy opens untapped doors.
A new standard in renewable might,
Shining brightly in sustainability's light.
So let us hail this wave-powered dream,
A vision of tomorrow, where possibilities gleam.
For in the heart of the ocean's embrace,
Lies the promise of a greener, brighter space.
Great video! Thanks for sharing 🙏🙏
Awesome Video sir!
Thank you!
Great with some qualified focus on this exciting area of renewal energy 👍
The Achilles heel of renewal energy calculations is maintenance and decommission cost. Usually these wind, solar and wave technologies are in the mercy of weather and their live span is short, 15-25 years in real life. They are installed on hard to reach places thus making both costs high. For some reason, decommissioning costs are not taken in to account, even though they matter more with these compared to most fossil and nuclear plants with 50+ year life.
ah don't wake the greenies and the grant predators from their sweet dreams with real-world problems.
Good point, but dismantling a power plant to prepare the land for other use is also non-zero cost
In this particular application we (the U.S.A.) already have a great deal of expertise for maintenance on-site as the USCG and NOAA have been managing offshore navigation and weather data buoys for at least half a century. Aside from size difference a fleet of buoy tenders based on existing models could probably handle deployment and capture for repair and decommissioning.
Solar panels can survive way longer than 25 years, most new ones are rated to 80% efficiency after 25 years so they only lose production.
The decommissioning costs for anything are seldom taken into account for most of the stuff humans make and use.
Australia has a working device generating 200Mw. The Uniwave200 project sits on the sea floor and works like a blowhole, using air to spin the turbine. It has very few moving parts and is patented. It could be installed on or near any seawall
That's 200 kW (kilowatt) maximum capacity. Not 200 megawatt.
VERY interesting. Promising! You say the pneumatic system works with "air instead of fluid." Air IS fluid. In common usage, sometimes fluid DOES mean liquid as opposed to solid or gas, but this is a science and technology channel so it seems right to stick to the more exact usage.
Sorry to nitpick. But I really like this video and your other work as well. Thanks!
From Wiktionary:
Noun
fluid (countable and uncountable, plural fluids)
1) Any substance which can flow with relative ease, tends to assume the shape of its container, and obeys Bernoulli's principle; a liquid, gas or plasma. [How I suggest the term be used in science and tech pieces]
2) A liquid (as opposed to a solid or gas). [How the term was used in this video]
3)(specifically, medicine, colloquial, typically in the plural) Intravenous fluids.
And…..if blood flow went in two directions, we would all be dead.
*"Air IS fluid"*
I was surprised I had to scroll so far to find this comment.
For a science education channel, this is really annoying error.
As you say, bot liquids and gasses are fluids.
I wouldn't say you were nitpicking. I think you found a fully grown louse.
@@ridermak4111 I thought that was odd too.
This idea should be a real hit in places like Kansas and Nebraska.
You must be the hit of any party.
@@WallyBraun - Yes, I am.
would this absorb storm wave height and provide a percentage of protection to sensitive coastal areas prone to erosion?
There is no free lunch in physics so I guess it does 🤔
I think you would need an extreme amount of these for any noticeable effect.
@@JeppeBeier I think so too but it's just there can't be no effect.
A large array must have a moderating effect. This is an upside in terms of coastal erosion but it also is a downside for the relative positioning of buoys in a large array. Presumably if the proximity of the buoys would need to take account of this and would determine the area needed for the wave power "farm".
doubt it
Thanks for a very informative presentation 😁👌👌👌❤️❤️
This is without a doubt my favorite wave energy concept. I really hope that the ideas that are promising just get funding and they start giving it a go because I'm so tired of seeing great advancements but everyone only talks about the money aspects holding it back from happening.. If we don't start making new things and putting money into them, then of course fossil fuel companies will continue to argue that their option is best and cheapest. I wish we could commit to modern advanced nuclear energy options as well
What you are experiencing is the “innovation” of Market and Venture Capitalism. Where “best” is defined as “most profitable”.
It's all a matter of corruption, and paradoxically, the more corrupt the better. For example, wind power is so unprofitable and bad for the environment that no wind project would ever be built anywhere without subsidies and kickbacks and middlemen in the political process - hence why it's built mostly in the EU, which has the biggest governments. Wind costs $150 per MWh without subsidies and that's after gaining scaling efficiency from decades of deployment. But it gets built everywhere... Proof, make it corrupt and business problems won't matter.
Fascinating, and an excellent presentation.
Thank you!
What kind of dreams do plumbers have? Pipe dreams!
Moonpower sounds like a really awesome idea 🌊🌝
Waves make me happy cause they are always waving.
"Not waving but drowning."
This is one of the best videos about Wave energy. CorPower is an invention based on trusted and well handeled theory. This is uncommon with most other wave energy videos. However CorPowers technology is based on a very sophisticated working principle, with constantly tuned mass damper. Most people will not be able to understand why CorPower is more efficient than most other wave energy converters. I am a machine engineer, but must admit that the working principle is beyond my understanding. But have been told by an expert that CorPower is one of a very few projects that may succeed. I dont expect wave energy to be a commercial succes ever. But I have a very short list of the two most promising projects: Wave Piston and CorPower. All other projects are without any chance of succes. And are just a vaste of money and time.
The biggest challenge of energy generation is energy transport. You lose a lot of power with range, it is actually a ridiculous amount. Putting devices out in the ocean will generate lots of power, but by the time the cables reach the shore you lose most of it. Therefore, innovative ways need to be used here.
You totally overstate the worry about transmission losses. For example HVDC losses are about 3.5% per 1000kilometres, so we could transmit solar/wind from the Moroccan desert to the southern UK with around only 12% losses.
Put them along a shipping route and come up with an energy transfer system to power electric shipping vessels ;)
Great video. Also some brilliant comments. I suspect it needs an annual clean. This could be achieved by some sort of robotic collar and improvements to anti fouling possibly. Also the exterior should be some material that's durable but breaks down into something that is environmentally friendly. Cool.
Is recycling solved for these composite materials?
Probably not.
Nope, used fibreglass blades from wind-mills are still buried and not recycled.
@@DreadX10 what bugs me is that planes worked perfectly well for decades being made from aluminium sheet held together with pop-rivets... no trouble scrapping them at end of life... easy to make, too.
hmmm... lightweight, aerodynamic structure, can be shipped as a flat pack and assembled on site?
nah! lets use "space age cutting edge sophisticated high tech optimally engineered advanced composite structural materials" that we can make in remote factories then ship via massive trucks through torturous routes... then leave in massive piles or festering skeletons on a hillside or in landfill... whilst "technology improves and we can reclaim the valuable resources"... only around the corner! just a few more years!
dont get me started on the power generation side of them... imho, you could replace the boilers of an existing coal or similar station with a few properly placed turbines, use them to generate and store heat at maximum efficiency regardless of windspeeds or demand... but whatever... lets use inverters, batteries, brakes, and limit ourselves to trying to match an erratic (albeit plentiful) supply to a varying demand... thats "industry leading engineering"...
@@DreadX10 I found at least five methods of recycling blades when I looked into it. The fallback method is to grind up and insert into cement making furnaces. The leading blade manufacturers are developing recyclable composites for the blades so the resins can be separated out at end of life. Expect this soon to be a non-problem.
can't understand what the Corpower guy was saying but very clear presentation from Ziroth
With placement in the vicinity of offshore rock outcrops and shoals that are already hazards to navigation these buoys could serve a dual purpose as aids to navigation. A government/private partnership would defray some of the costs involved in deployment and maintenance.
Brilliant engineering and very well explained. The big problem with wave energy, like wind power, is that it isn't predictable. There are sometimes long periods of calm. That is why tidal stream energy is so much better. As long as the moon keeps going round the earth the tides flow around our coasts twice a day.
Might work for preventing coastal erosion too. A few rows of those parallel to the coast should be able level the waves.
How will this dampen waves or encourage root growth?
@@jasonsharma5888 Like oil on water, just leveling bigger waves so they don't grow big at the coast and eat at the land.
@@biondanishgenomeinstitute8193 I see, you would need to put these devices in a mode where they pushed back against the waves without breaking in order to do that, and the more surface area they had the better they'd work; currently when there are big waves the device disengages so it doesn't break and they're designed to float, more than fight the waves. Your analogy is also flawed because oil on water is adding surface tension. There is another issue: where waves grow the most is probably closer to the coast than these devices will be anchored.
I came here looking for a design I saw a long time ago where a cup was placed face down on the sea level creating a hermetic seal and inside of the cup was a proppeller that captured the internal winds forming due to the ebb and flow of the waves.
Great! Can’t wait to never see this in the real world! ☹️
I got a wave power idea: I comprises of a large pill shaped float (the size of a small house) that is half full of water. It's attached to a strong arm (like a cistern float) and on a pier above the water level. Where there are two disc shaped generators (like on some direct drive wind turbines) with one for upstroke and one for downstroke. The water in the pill shaped float does the downstrokes. It's basically just one moving part and built strong, should last a while without much maintainence. Also have easily replacement of wearing parts to keep maintainence cost down. And it should be possible to empty the water and raise the float in wild weather conditions. And refilling to half full should not be too difficult autonomously. It's about half full to make the upstroke and downstroke the same power and also making the maximum downstroke power, with the same power upstroke. Obviously way less than half full when you include it's empty weight. But the combined weight would be half of the buoyancy of the air inside the float. That's what I would technically mean by "half full". I like it cos it would seem to be rugged, powerful and low maintenance. I tend to shy away from gears and sliding pumps etc. Too many parts for wave power cos of the inherent high maintenance. They go for ever without stopping, continually wearing for ever! Designers have to keep that in mind when designing waver power systems. As soon as I saw the direct drive wind turbines I immediately started work on my design, being stoked about direct driver generators for wave power! 😅 They are slow RPM and only one moving part. A win, win for wave power! 😅
Since waves get there energy from the lunar interaction with earth that causes tides, if we take buoy energy to the exteme and fill the ocean with them, isnt there a danger of causing unintended side effects in the same way that planets that are interacting through gravity can steal spin energy from each other? the buoys get their energy from the waves, the waves get it from the tides, the tides get it from gravitational interaction with the moon, so the buoy energy is essentially sapping the energy of the gravitational interaction of the earth and moon.
The bouys are still on earth, so no, it doesn’t affect the tides. Unless by tide you mean the wave. The wave must now push up against the bouy. It becomes a smaller wave. I guess that’s it. Helps against erosion?
All the energy from the lunar interaction will turn to heat-energy eventually. These buoys will grab some of that former 'lunar energy', convert it to electricity and then it will become heat-energy when the electricity is used. The end-result is the same. So it is a 'use it or loose it anyway' situation.
Are waves not wind-generated?
@@DreadX10 That does make sense. Thank you!
Thats truly unwavering😮
Are there estimations from third parties about the system's potential effects (during long term operation, not just installation) on marine life? And can anything dislodge the anchoring system (e.g. earthquakes)?
Now regarding actual practicality:
Half of my small country and ~90% of its population are by the sea, and calculating the very peak power generation of these (the average is not quoted) against an average yearly electricity consumption here (as if excess power from times of lower consumption can be stored) we would require over 4,000 buoys in operation. Calculated for real time peak electricity consumption during the summer results in 25,000 buoys required.
Considering the peak power generation could very well be double the average, I can't imagine having 10,000 such giant buoys along our ~170km shoreline in order to possibly replace all other energy production methods (again, with a hypothetical energy storage method, as covering peaks in real time would require many more tens of thousands).
I can't even imagine these supplementing just 25% of our energy requirements as that would still require around 20 buoys per kilometer throughout the entire shoreline.
Seems like a great idea. It will live or die by LCOE (mentioned around 9:00 ). The cost per MWh they claim is at least kinda interesting, particularly if they can get the cost down at scale.
How it will be developed if it's so much more expensive than the wind power?
As long as it's cheaper than fossil fuels, and doesn't kill as many people as fossil fuels, then it's useful.
We get the majority of our electricity from Cole currently, even though coal is quite a bit more expensive than natural gas. 🤷♂️
scale.
Very interesting design... good luck to them... great vid, I'm going to sub!
Every single day we see revolutionary this and unlimited energy that and it all comes to a lot of nothing. How is this buoy going to be any different.
Most of these revolutionary ideas are not practical. I am sceptical.
Extraordinary video
Really... a mass of gears? what is wrong with just one moving permanent magnet acting as a piston through the EM fields of some copper windings creating an electrical charge, much cheaper to manufacture, certainly less wear and tear and less maintenance
I was just about to post the same message.
A slow varying magnetic field makes it more difficult to capture and convert the energy.
First you don't want to work with low voltages, high currents, low frequencies, it's inefficient with power electronics involved in rectification and inverters. There will be losses of energy and a higher cost.
Then there's the problem of converting all the mechanical energy by induction with that slow moving magnet. This will require A LOT more copper for the coil and a complex magnetic core for efficiency.
This is somewhat analogue to being on a bicycle on a low gear while slowly climbing uphill. Legs get tired faster because the biological energy conversion is inefficient at high torque. And there will be more losses and wear in the bike transmission.
Also we try to reduce the use of permanent magnets because of rare earths. But perhaps the linear generator could work without just like rotating ones can.
@@szer3778 Thank you for the *knowledgeable* reply.
I had an idea for a wave generator system when I first saw one of those "octopus" amusement park rides in operation. I realized immediately that if a barge/comparment was perched atop a smart network of floating footpods, the wave action could drive pistons that could siphon off energy.
The massive elephant in the room here is that unlike wind and solar, wave doesn't scale at all. You can't make the floats bigger because for the same reason as a big ship gives smoother sailing, a big float will bridge across waves and no longer move up and down with them at all, so they're stuck at one size, so lose out on the economies of scale wind turbines have been benefiting from for decades. If they have to install 20 GW before economies of scale are competitive with the cost of wind and solar right now (And these figures are going down continuously, especially solar), they've literally got nothing worth anyone's investment for commercial power generation.
Excellent presentation this looks like a much more ecological solution than windmills.
5 X 0 is still 0 🤣
This is an efficient and well thought out design🏆 🤔My question is how does it deal with “fouling” (growth of marine organisms) on the sliding cylinders, I can see how constant friction would deter accumulation, but what about the low areas that would only be traveled on with high oscillating waves❓
Some people are commenting about barnicles and other sea life things that like to stick onto surfaces like boat hulls, it's a fair point and I was wondering if there's any "no maintenance/minimal maintenance" and if not, what would the costs be to have divers clean the bouys? Also if this whole system becomes wide spread, would that not create jobs for diving cleaners?
The tuning is like MPPT on solar panels. The system load is adjusted to match what the driver can push at that moment.
There are more than a few firms who've gotten traction, although not being from the US, I can see why you may not have heard of Ocean Power Technologies , Eco Wave Power , CalWave or Oscilla Power. The quest for profitability from any of these wave power firms remains elusive.
Fascinating! Many thanks 🙂🙏🏼
It would be interesting to hear about how the units deal with tidal shifts. With the rigid mooring systems, it appears that they only work at a set depth. That would mean that with a high tide or a low tide, the units would be inoperable due to being over extended/retracted and would just lock in place. There would have to me some way of controlling the length of the mooring rod connecting the units to the seabed and I don't remember this being covered by the video.
not for ig tides simple, use tidal energy systems for big tides
How does the system handle the lateral forces of the ocean waves? Does the anchor or spring pneumatic system inside the buoy damped these forces and only allow vertical motion?
I am impressed at your passion on the subject matter Sir. Good luck with your endeavors. Peace v
Looks a much simpler and self-contained solution than many. If they can be successfully attached to the sea bed, maintenance could be quite low. A ship with a crane could just up lift for on-land refurbishment and attach a newly serviced unit. I wonder in what depth they can be deployed?
Seals, bushings, corrosion on the rods and water intrusion seems like it would be an ongoing concern. The points about barnacles mentioned earlier as well.
Very nice. What about tides, waves work at different heights all the time - does the tether need to change lengths all the time? Or it just works at high tide?
I was about to ask the same question 😅
Yes it would need to adapt, though I think a tidal range adjustment would surely be part of the design.
Tides are consistent and can be accurately forecast, unlike wind or solar energy. However, tidal power generation requires areas with high tidal ranges, and while such areas do exist, they are not common. The next challenge is that tidal power is not constant throughout the day, so you need a method for energy storage.
Excellent well edited video.
I'll believe it when I see it - in use.
Great video, great tech, great sponsor, thanks!
I think there might be an issue with the mooring system. They vibrate the anchor into the ground but the oscillating motion of the buoy would shift those anchors out of the seafloor. Or at least disconnect the power and disable the buoy. I would wish for them to create a concrete type material that is pumped into and around the Moore to increase density or the contact area where the oscillation can be properly absorbed. I really want to see this work.
Lots of positive things about this technological development. It sounds like you just re-presented press materials from the company. Is there any down side? Who are the competitors and how do they compare?
Agreed. There are quite a few competitors, many with more traction also
There's sort of like a perpetual motion taint to wave energy that makes it harder to achieve. Moving water, thats great. Reversing direction, not so great. But with the gearboxes, like an automatic watch, we can engineer past that limitation
Sorry to be pedantic, but around 4:00, you say "uses air instead of fluid". Air is also a fluid.
Overall, really great content and animations! Imagine a future when these are fully-developped systems and are a combined floating wind turbine and wave energy harvester, using the same underwater infrastructure.
Lately, I've seen there are five renewable sources of energy competing for when we inevitably run out of fossil fuels (even though we can utilize charcoal for steam, we'll still need to instil the values of replanting trees in lumberjacks to sustain it):
1. Tidal energy plants.
2. Wave energy buoys.
3. Cylindrical wind turbines.
4. Geothermal plants.
5. Nuclear reactors.
With the substantial infrastructure of large wind turbines already working well, perhaps it could be efficient to have one machine that uses wind and wave power, or to have wave power mechanisms that hug the base of existing wind turbines?
It would be good to have a small watermark in the lower left hand corner of any computer generated footage that you use. This will be even more important as the quality of rendered computer generated footage improves over time.
It has a piston that passes through a seal exposed to sea water. There is also a movingnpart at the base on the sea bed, also exposed to sea water. I wonder how well those components will fare tens years down the line? I think the power generating mechanism needs to be fully enclosed.
One challenge I see is how to make all the generators in phase with each other, as they all have to feed the same grid. The phase of the wave under each buoy is not synchronized with that under the other buoys. How did the engineers tackle this problem?