Probably by now you already know that in the future fossil fuels will no longer be used as they harm our planet therefore researchers are trying to design cheaper and more efficient ways to harness renewable energies. Solar, wind and tidal power are the best solution for the moment and these were improved greatly during the past years.
Today we are going to talk about tidal power as a team of researchers from Oxford University have designed a new underwater turbine that is cheaper and easier to be maintained. It’s called Transverse Horizontal Axis Water Turbine besides the 60% lower costs and 40% maintenance costs, it’s also more efficient as one THAWT will generate about 12 megawatts of energy which is enough to power 12,000 homes.
The THAWT has only one problem as the engineers don’t know if it will be approved as it could affect the underwater life. Hopefully, the underwater turbine will not have any ecological negative effects the the THAWT will be deployed soon.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Sorry but isn’t that simply a push lawnmower?
All this time to understand that a push mower design was more effecient that a fan.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:03 am
actually, a push-mower type design might work even better!
September 11th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Mike:
Push mowers cut grass, not act as turbines! In mowers the spiral design of the cutter cuts against a stationary straight blade to cut continuously so you don’t get ‘bound up’ with a clump against a pair of parallel blades. The spiral and straight edge act like a large pair of scissors. I hope that makes sense.
That said, I hope we can tell the difference between eco-harmful tech and eco-friendly. In other words, this tech could affect the eco-system close to the beach in potentially very negative negative ways if we aren’t careful.
Just having an eco-dependant tech doesn’t mean it’s eco-freiendly!
September 11th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Hippies are never happy. Hydrocarbons put CO2 in the air. Wind turbines kill birds tidal kills fish. Hydro electric creates unnatural lakes. And nuclear is fucking scary. It seems like nothing short of ZPM’s will please the green movement. O wait those take energy from other dimensions….cant have that.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Probably by now you already know that in the future fossil fuels will no longer be used as they harm our planet therefore researchers are trying to design cheaper and more efficient ways to harness renewable energies.