The Alien Next Door

Finavera Renewables is not only making waves with its new technology—it’s hoping to ride those waves straight to the bank. Finavera is a Vancouver-based company that hopes to harness ocean waves off the coast of Oregon to produce electricity. They designed something called the AquaBuOY, an enormous steel buoy that will generate electricity from the vertical motion of waves. According to Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post, here is how it works: “The buoy, anchored three to 4.8 kilometers offshore, will convert the waves’ motion into pressurized water using large, reinforced-rubber hose pumps. As the buoy goes up the peak of the wave and down into its trough, it forces a piston in the bottom of the buoy to stretch and contract the hose pumps, pushing water through. This drives a turbine that powers a generator producing electricity, which would be shipped to shore through an undersea transmission line.”

Simple…Well, maybe not so simple…Operating equipment in the hostile environment of the open ocean can pose challenges. The power of moving water may overwhelm even the highest tech equipment. Eilperin talks of how, amid much fanfare, Verdant Power had placed turbines off New York City’s Roosevelt Island last December with promises to harness the tides of the East River and convert that energy into electricity; within a short time all six turbines were shut down for repair and redesign.

Tapping the ocean’s power is just one of the many alternative energy sources being investigated by smart entrepreneurs on the heels of imposed government policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil. Solar and wind power make up the best known and most researched methods, worldwide. Other, more obscure power generators include turning algae into diesel fuel, and getting energy from waste (e.g., leaves, tires and “car fluff”). There’s also geothermal and tidal energy. The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of geothermal electricity, with over 200 plants generating over 3,000 megawatts of energy. It’s an exciting time of mind-power to design our future of newly emerging technology.

To my way of thinking, though, while all this technology is good (I recognize that technology always precedes mainstream thought) the real excitement happens when it is actively embraced by “Joe & Joesephine Public” (I watched it happen with the recycling phenomenon, for which I lobbeyed since I was in high school and is now very much a part of everyday living in Canada). For instance, how many people do you know–anyone (including yourself)–who drives a hybrid car or uses some kind of alternative energy source on their property?…Hmmm…I know of one (and it isn’t me…yet).