By Julian Singer Minesto is a Swedish company that generates electricity by “flying” kites under water. This seemingly bizarre idea is best understood by thinking of a kite flying in air that is induced to follow the trajectory of a figure of eight. At the extremes of the trajectory, and at other points, the kite [...]
One of the best known stories of the early history of Britain is the tale of how the (vain?) King Canute was persuaded by flattering courtiers that he could successfully order the waves to turn back. It is hard to see why he would be persuaded to do something so obviously foolish. But it is [...]
This is the first of two articles on community based renewable energy projects in remote locations and the problems they can encounter. This first piece concerns marine tidal turbines By Stewart Dalby The Shetland Islands are 106 miles north of John O’Groats in Scotland and they are thus very remote from UK mainland energy infrastructure. [...]
Last week saw the publication of the 178 page Hendry report on the role of tidal lagoons. (For those interested, the full text is available at https://hendryreview.wordpress.com ) There was a generally favourable media reaction to Hendry’s recommendations about the initial Swansea project and his proposals for handling this and other larger projects, which are [...]
Ocean Power Technologies(OPT), the American wave energy company which started commercial operations in 1994, reported today on the six months ending on October 31 2016. Revenue was US $ 0.4million (US $ 0.6 m for the six months ending 31 Oct.2015). Net loss for the period was US $ 4.8m (2015a loss of US $ [...]