Electricity From The Ocean Swell Is The Cheapest

Engineer Alvin Smith invented a device that could solve two of the biggest challenges facing renewable energy (cost and variable output). The device is called Searaser.

Searaser is carbon free and uses the almost constant motion of the ocean swell to drive seawater through an onshore turbine, creating electricity. Its design is so simple that its creators believe that it will be able to produce electricity cheaper than any other wave-power technology or any other type of renewable energy. Actually it could be cheaper than any kind of electricity.

To produce electricity, the Searaser pumps seawater, using a vertical piston between two buoys – one on the surface of the water – the other suspended underwater and tethered to a weight on the seabed. As the ocean swell moves, the buoys move up-and-down and the piston pumps pressurised seawater through pipes to an onshore turbine.

Searaser is still in developing process, but its creators hope to have it on the market by 2014. This invention could also supply energy on-demand by pumping seawater into a coastal reservoir, with a hydropower turbine, solving renewable energy’s problem of fluctuating output.

(MS)