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ENERGY SOLUTIONS

Energy Sources:

Windpower
Biomass
Coal
Geothermal
Hydropower
Nuclear
Solar
Cold Fusion
Super Conductivity
Tidal

TIDAL POWER

Things To Know: This is an innovative and very rational way to generate power.  America has plenty of coastline to spare and plenty hot water just off shore.  Newly perfected methods for harnessing electrical power from the surf may some day provide plenty of electricity for our coastal cities.  Producing power from the cycles of Moon and the Sun may seem far fetched, but it's happening even as you read this.  Means of converting the tidal and thermal energy into electricity are explained below accompanied with some great websites.  One of the best sites is this Californian website, "Hang Ten Guys" and thanks for the great site:  http://www.energy.ca.gov/development/oceanenergy/

Trapping High Tide:  The entrapment method is simple and highly effective.  In theory, high tide will raise the level of water in a seaside cove.  At maximum height, a levy is lowered into place to trap the water in the cove.  The water is then drained through turbines.  The Dutch and the French also use this concept.  Payoff is unfortunately not a short-term possibility.  More info at: http://www.poemsinc.org/FAQtidal.html, http://www.nspower.ca/AboutUs/OurBusiness/PowerProduction/HowWeGeneratePower/Hydro.html#ANN ,

Wells Turbine:  This impressive stationary turbine is able to harness the energy of air streams that fluctuate in origin and destination while its blades rotate in the same direction.  The following company has devised an ingenious way of harnessing the wave action in large bodies of water to create the perfect use for this turbine.  More info can be found by reading the explanation from the Wavegencompany: http://www.wavegen.co.uk/.  

Here's a company from the USA that has kicked this concept up a notch:

http://www.energetech.com.au/index.htm.  Trident Energy is another similarly impressive British firm with an imaginative idea to harness the same kinetic energy of wave action to produce large amounts of energy: http://www.tridentenergy.co.uk/linear_generator.htm

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion:  It is now possible to use the ability of the sea water to vaporize Propylene, forcing presurized vapor through a turbine to produce electricity and fresh water on a 24 hour basis.  A potentially vast supply of energy from simple thermal variations in ocean water is now possible with this technology.  An "old school" innovative engineer is leading this effort with his company Sea Solar Power International: http://www.seasolarpower.com/otec.html

Please advise the 2020 Institute if you feel we've left out any must see statistics or new technologies in this area or if you feel we've inadvertently misrepresented anything on this page.

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