Alan Burns made a fortune in the oil business. But as oil wanes, he’s convinced that clean energy will be—must be—the next big thing. And so this inventor has poured his fortune into a challenge far greater than finding new oil deposits: extracting energy from the ocean
Posted 09.25.2008 at 10:33 am
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THE CLEAN-WATER CONUNDRUM
Although Burns is confident that CETO will someday generate thousands of megawatts of emission-free electricity, he’s relying on a far more immediate need in the fossil-fuel-rich desert state of Western Australia to get his project started: water.
Pump Power: A balloon and the enclosed pump that will send high-pressure seawater to shore. Jason Thomas
Two years ago, Australia’s first large-scale desalination plant opened in the town of Kwinana, 25 miles south of Perth. Like all reverse-osmosis facilities, this $400-million plant forces seawater at enormous pressure through a series of salt-filtering membranes. It takes 24 megawatts of power to generate the requisite pressure, which is why desalination plants are most popular in energy-rich, water-poor locations like the Middle East. The plant supplies 16 percent of Perth’s drinking water. Along with a series of solid conservation policies, the facility has left the state with a more stable water supply than other areas of the country (like Sydney, for instance, where last year a conflict between neighbors over water use ended in murder).
“Western Australia has been suffering from climate change more than any other area in the world,“ says Ben Jarvis, the manager of water efficiency at the state’s Water Corporation. “We’ve adapted fast. We’ve realized that it’s climate change, we’ve revised our planning estimates, and we’ve built new sources.”
In the next few years, at least five more desalination plants will be built in Australia, including a second one in Western Australia. That plant, to be erected 100 miles down the coast from Perth, will be powered entirely with renewable energy when it opens in 2011. Wind farms will probably be the main source. To support the development of new energy sources, however, the Water Corporation will run 20 percent of the plant on experimental technologies. In April the agency announced several finalists, CETO among them, from an original pool of 18 power-plant designs. The winner will get both a long-term contract to supply power and the legitimacy that comes with a public utility’s backing.
Of course, Australia is not alone in its water problems. From southern Europe to the American West, a combination of population growth and changing weather patterns has forced governments to struggle with the decision to invest in huge reverse-osmosis desalination plants like the one near Perth. A system that could do the same job, for a similar cost, without the greenhouse-gas emissions that are driving the need for the plants in the first place? It would be in demand across the globe.
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Wow, thats pretty good! GO GREEN!
I think wind energy is great. I buy 100% wind sourced energy from my utility, BUT Wave, Tide and Solar Thermal (with heat storage capacity) seem to make so much more sense since they don't shut down when the wind is calm or when the sun goes down.
Can't wait to get an electric Chysler mini-van and plug it into a charging port powered by green energy!
...Genius...Genius...Genius! Alan Burns obviously finds himself in a very unique position here...being able to parlay years of experience from one industry and use those same lessons to go green...eureka! This WILL BE the wave-design of the future...because who wants to have obstacles interfering with their local beach, or their vacation destinations.
Mr. Burns is a billionaire for the best of reasons...he's a genius!
The great thing about men like Burns and Branson is that they can afford to create whatever they think of... The problem with them is that they can afford to create whatever they think of. If they can afford to create this tool for extracting energy from the water like this, or hydrogen cars, or whatever other big, wonderful, impractical and expensive idea they have they go with it. They don't think like poor people, and they don't consider that things like this will still cost people rather large amounts of money for the creation of usable energy, and for transportation of said energy.
I've been working on an invention for nearly a decade that would create unlimited energy, and can be large enough to fuel an entire city, small enough to power a cell phone, and can actually be placed in any home allowing the home to produce it's own energy. Unfortunately, I don't have the money these men do...
Think smaller, Mr. Burns... Not like smaller tech or smaller ideas or smaller projects... Smaller people with smaller budgets. Quit working on things that will make you more money and start working on things that will free us all from paying people for our power needs...
Oh so wrong on oh so many levels CarpeNoctu! You forget to take into account that ALL new technology costs a lot at first, it's new. A whole lot of tech we have today was developed after hundreds of millions of dollars of spending (be it in military development or space exploration.) I still see us surrounded by it and yes, in every home. I'd also like to know when the search for a better source of energy (that mind you is not renewable, but SUSTAINABLE) was "impractical?" Those men and yourself all have the very same goal, power to the people. If you feel like they need that money in order for their extreme ideas to be realized, then why admit you need the same funding? Are you saying then that your invention should speak for and sell-itself? Why has it taken almost ten years then? I assume you filed a patent for this miracle "unlimited" energy contraption.......right? And don't get me wrong, I really do hope you invented the next best thing since sliced bread, you just seem very contradictory in your approach...
Great concept but lets remember that waves and tides are two very different things. Waves are primarily caused by surface wind and as such are a form of wind energy. Tides are caused by the moving gravitational fields of the Moon and to a lesser degree the Sun. Both of these energy sources are truly enormous and unlimited and best of all they are available 24-7.
Yes good! Ocean energy source is the best beacuse it is a stable motion and there is no such thing as zero motion in the sea.
But one thing I can suggest to make Alan Burns project more helpful is by using CO2 as their balloon gas. To keep for a while CO2 from the atmosphere. Maybe CO2 have better effect on balloon pressure stability than using ordinary air.
from San Jose, California
excellent idea, I can't wait for it to be implemented out here in California. We could certainly use the technology, especially the desalination technique, considering how much of an issue we've been having with droughts as of late.
Anything that can be utilized for energy production, that occurs naturally,and pollution free, should and will be used for energy production in the future... this is the only way we can break our dependence on oil, and as far as I am concerned, the best road to true independence as a nation. I can't wait to drive a total electric car recharged from pollution free energy...does not get any better than that..Kudos, Mr. Burns, please, by all means, feel free to use your money and expertise to make this possible for us all...
Our future is in green energy indeed and this project sounds very promising. If only more corporations were investing in green energy research and development, this world would be a better place.
John
http://www.yourloan.ca
As with wind power the key measure is what it costs per unit of energy it provides with all costs considered. Wind energy has gone down the route of large horizontal axis machines(HAWT), because they can deliver the best aerodynamic efficiency at typical wind speeds. They have fundamental problems that mean they are unlikely to produce power any cheaper than they now do. Vertical axis machines, though less efficient aerodynamically have the potential to be economically superior because they can be scaled up in two dimensions ( not one as the HAWT )be constructed with cheaper materials, and much easier to maintain.
One aspect of wind generated wave energy production that does not seem to get it's due attention is the angular momentum factor. Anything that has kinetic energy also has momentum and the transfer of both to some device, such as a turbine, is governed by the rule that in collisions, momentum is always conserved. It also is the case that the maximum transfer of momentum ( and therefor kinetic energy ) takes place when the two things in collision have the same inertial properties ( like two pool balls ).This rule applies to angular momentum as well as linear momentum Wind generated waves have angular momentum ( and therefor angular kinetic energy ) and that proportion of the total kinetic energy of the wave grows with the fourth power of the wave height. This explains why larger waves are steeper and the ratio of wave length to wave height gets smaller. It also explains the phenomenon of "tubes" that intrepid surfers admire, and sometimes the withdrawal of the sea before a tsunami strikes. Consequently a wave energy generator hoping to extract as much energy as possible from the waves has to be able to vary it's moment of inertia depending on wave height, and that the motion of the device colliding with the wave needs to have an angular component( rotation about some axis )if it is to absorb the maximum momentum, and thereby kinetic energy from the wave. In the device described it might improve efficiency if the point about which the underwater floats rotated could be altered according to the wave height above.