This story is part of Choosing Earth, a series that chronicles the impact of climate change and explores what's being done about the problem.
A Scottish startup says its prototype wave-energy device produced "highly encouraging results."
AWS Ocean announced that after six months at sea its Archimedes Waveswing produced more than 10 kilowatts during moderate wave conditions, with peaks as high as 80 kilowatts. That beat company expectations by 20 percent.
Waveswing is a 50-ton buoylike device that's tethered to the ocean floor and sits below the water's surface. It uses the force of passing waves to generate power. Watch the video above to learn more about how Waveswing works.
AWS Ocean says its prototype survived force 10 gale conditions. This trial period, taking place off Scotland's Orkney Islands, is expected to wrap up before the end of the year, with more trials planned in 2023.
nobecauselogic on November 15th, 2022 at 19:14 UTC »
This news is so uplifting it’s downright buoyant.
ThroawayPeko on November 15th, 2022 at 18:56 UTC »
It's a buoy with an upper shell that moves up and down. The moving parts inside seem to be shielded by a flexible rubber seal between the upper shell and the lower part of the buoy, and inside they're connected by a rod in the middle that keeps them centered with bearings letting the rod move up and down, which I guess turns something.
I understand that the problem with the salty bastard that is the Sea that it'll screw up anything mechanical you throw at it with salt and water, but as long as the seal holds the only thing I guess this will have problems with are barnacles? Seems promising.
Dreidhen on November 15th, 2022 at 15:20 UTC »
Nice to see it working as predicted. I remember doing a report in college nearly twenty years back on capturing waves' kinetic energy but back then it was all still on paper only.