We’re all for new and creative ways of using natural sources to produce energy. We’ve previously written how installing solar panels is an excellent way to use renewable energy sources, but underwater kites?
Swedish site The Local writes that Swedish company Minesto believes that “a device modelled on a children’s toy will make harnessing energy from the world’s oceans as easy as flying a kite.”
Perhaps the world’s oceans could provide a viable clean-energy alternative other resources?
The underwater kite solution, called Deep Green, harnesses energy from ocean tides and currents at a far more efficient rate than wind turbines above the surface. Moving – or flying – in a circular motion converting tidal currents into energy, the devices can generate 800 times more energy than if they were in the sky. This is due to the fact that seawater is 800 times denser than air.
The prototype model was included in Time Magazine’s ‘50 Best Inventions of 2010’, and Minesto has raised €2 million to develop the technology further and build a scale model that will be tested off the coast of Northern Ireland after the summer.
You might ask how this will affect marine wildlife, as these giant foreign objects are placed beneath the sea surface? According to Minesto, extensive studies have been carried out to see what will happen.
“One of the major obstacles has been the threat of things getting caught up by the tethers. We will place the kites far enough apart so they cannot get intertwined, but there is a danger of floating devices and fishing nets for example,” Minesto CEO Anders Jansson explains.
Speaking to The Local, Jansson added that in ways the kites can actually have a positive environmental effect as the kites pump air back into the ocean which will help clean up the water.
(Source: www.hippyshopper.com )