Underwater Kiteboarding to generate electricity...

windobsessed · Since 07 Aug 2008 120 Posts Vancouver Stoked

This is pretty cool: http://www.minesto.com/ Cool

fredf · Since 10 Jan 2009 80 Posts Eugene. Or

When these get built the new underwater adrenaline sport will be to tag on to the "kite" and go with it.

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

Great idea! Thumb's Up

sixo · Since 25 Jun 2007 36 Posts west side

way cool may I have another

Freebird · Since 14 Nov 2010 7 Posts C.Coast Kook

Yeah, the wave energy buoy they had off of Newport worked great...... Until it SANK.
Putting expensive shit in the ocean and relying on it for electricity is STUPID STUPID STUPID. Liek they said, moving water has 800 times the energy of moving air. Steel bends, cables break and carbon fiber cracks under those stresses.

What happens when a series of massive storms hit and knocks out the grid. Not as easy to lay power lines in the ocean as it is on land. Putting tens of thousands of these stupid things in a delicate ecosystem will have profound effects on it. Haven't humans shat on the ocean enough as it is.

But I'm sure someone will get rich off this scheme, so it will proceed as planned. I'm sure they will make sure no marine life gets harmed, just like BP did.

Aeolus · Sat Nov 20, 10 5:33 pm

Nice concept...... though it might be tough to get over the flotsam issue .....a wad of bull whip kelp drifting through a field of those power kites would be interesting...I want to be on the maintenance crew for that project.... Laughing

This post just reminds me how awesome kite power is......so many cool ideas taking shape around the kite concept....

PDXF · Since 10 Sep 2008 116 Posts Stoked

For the impeller size the single 'turbine' occupies a massive area. Seems like a great idea, to get a grant to research a new method of power generation only to find that the watt/meter density isn't even close to what the grant paper indicated. I want the guy who wrote the grant to come work for me, I have some real good ideas.

sirmichaelo · Since 26 Mar 2010 353 Posts Maui Obsessed

Here's a link to a more realistic approach to ocean energy:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2010-02-16-wave-energy_N.htm

The ocean is literally a constant stream of energy. We all surf. We know this.

It's all about finding the right way to harness it. The link above is all Oregon-based.

By the way, I say 'realistic' but I know how bad the ocean has spanked my ass around and it would certainly do the same to expensive equipment.

"It's like trying to get milk from a bull."

kitezilla · Since 22 Jun 2006 453 Posts gorge Obsessed

The little fish get chopped up or stunned by the blades...the bigger fish come there for the free lunch...the long-line fishermen come there for the bigger fish...the kiters come there, as employees, drawing on their experience... to untangle the lines...finally, the on-the-job experience of kiting pays off!

forrest · Sun Nov 21, 10 10:21 am

You guys sound like a bunch of oil loving republicans.

shred_da_gorge · Sun Nov 21, 10 11:03 am

Here's another way to harness ocean energy for localized robotic tasks without tethering: http://liquidr.com. May be a cost-effective way to get rid of the millions of dollars worth of tethered navigation buoys that need frequent cleaning (sorry to put the CG out of that business). And as fragile as this little toy looks it's weathered some of the toughest waves in the South Pacific! (The wave power generation wing acts as ballast; I think of it as an inverse GoJoe Very Happy

).

Energy is a business like any other - if there's a source of it, it'll be exploited, natural impact or not. The only way to lessen exploitation is to significantly lessen demand. Unfortunately that's not how our society works, so arguing about the efficiency of putting 'kites' into the mighty ocean is pointless, so long as the costs of damage and repair still allow profitability in the operating budget. Look at the idle egg beater windmills from the last 'energy crisis' on Pacheco Pass in California replaced by acres of new Vestas towers in eastern Oregon alongside a billion dollar budget BPA got (in the name of jobs) to rewire transmission lines to ship the new power down to California. Hood River lies between two dams on the Columbia yet pays for electricity from a coal-fired plant in Boardman... how big do you think saving the ocean factors in?

http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/SITING/power.shtml