Anaconda Bulge Wave Power Generator
Anaconda Bulge Wave Power Generator
Find out about the Anaconda wave-power machine
wave | newsThe
Anaconda is a new
wave power generator which could soon be harnessing the vast amounts of clean power around Britain's coasts.
Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd have put together a proof-of-concept prototype system to convert
wave energy into electricity using
bulge waves -
Anaconda. Anaconda is simply a large long
rubber tube filled with water, closed at both ends, with its
head anchored to face the oncoming waves. As the motion of the waves underneath the rubber tube causes the tube to rise and fall, it sqeezes the tube in some places and causing bulges of water to form in other places. The bulges are pushed through the tube at the same speed as the waves passing below the tube with the bulges effectively
surfing on the front of the waves carrying energy (in the stretched rubber around the bulge). This concept is illustrated well in the image below from
Daily Mail.
The bulges of high pressure water are collected in an accumulator before being released into a conventional
hydraulic turbine which in turn drives an
electricity generator. When the water leaves the turbine it is fed back around into the main tube again (in a low pressure region).
The advantage of the
Anaconda over say the
Pelamis system is that the Anaconda is so cheap to make (relatively), and has no hinges or joints to break. The designers predict that the cost of an Anaconda which will generate an average of 1 Megawatt of electricity (12 month average) will be around GBP 2-3 million. Such a tube would need to be 7 metres in diameter, and 150 metres long, and would be installed a couple of miles off the UK coast in the North Atlantic.
Anaconda was invented by Professors
Francis Farley and
Rod Rainey.
Useful Links and Downloads
Click below to watch a video simulation of the
Anaconda wave energy converter in action.
Click here to download the
Anaconda technical memo (12 page PDF) which explains the science behind Anaconda and electricity generation from bulge waves.
Article Last Modified: 11:18, 27th May 2009Comment on this Article
If you have any comments on this article, please email them to
neil@reuk.co.uk.
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