From Norway, a country with a long and rugged coastline made up of all Slartibartfast’s squiggly bits, comes a design for harnessing wave power and using it to generate a steady, rather than tide-related, flow of energy. The Slot Cone Generator is a breakwater with four slots on its face. As a wave breaks over it, the water fills reservoirs through the slot. The system doesn’t generate electricity directly from the wave’s energy, but from the stored kinetic energy of the water carried up to the reservoirs, releasing it over a period of hours. To further increase the flexibility of the system, it’s planned to use excess electricity to create hydrogen for fuel cells etc.

via sustainablog

Technorati tag: Wave power, Norway