Advances in Renewable Electric Energy Sources

The world's first commercial wave farm is online. 3x 750kW Pelamis Wave Energy Converters are the first step. The energy is taken from waves. One side effect nobody is talking about is that stealing power from waves might help with beach erosion and reduce storm damage. Also these are low-profile, suitable for unobtrusive installation off the coast of Massachusetts, where Ted Kennedy can't see them.

Another twist on taking power from the sea is the SEARASER which pumps water using wave power, to turn turbines in conventional hydroelectric plant style. The water can be used immediately or stored in a retaining pond for use whether there are waves or not.

Next up: using humans as an energy source. Boon Edam has put a generator in a revolving door. It slows itself to reduce user injuries, and generates a small amount of power to light itself as well.

Then we have the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity. That is, the wasted motion of the earth produced when automobiles and trains and aircraft move down the road, track, or runway.

All of these are good developments and show quite a bit of promise. They are also uniformly low-power high-cost sources of power generation, causing nuclear reactors to laugh at their low economy. Here is something I have almost no reservation about: using otherwise unusable polluted ground to hold large-footprint solar farms. Now THAT was a good idea.

Gizmag: if you don't go there at least every once in a while, you should.