Renewable Revolution

June 28th, 2017 by Joshua S Hill

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/06/28/wave-power-contribute-10-global-electricity-demand-2050

Agelbert NOTE: Wave and tidal power have a lot more potential than a 10% contribution to global energy supply. WHY? Because of the physics of planetary rotation and the lunar orbit around our planet.

I wrote about it some years ago:

Masdar Engage Contest Entry Submitted December 20, 2013



There is no doubt that humans in general, and those concentrated in cities in particular, are responsible for much of the massive demand for potable of water and energy. There is also agreement that this demand is, at present not healthy for the biosphere in general and humans in particular. There is too much waste, inefficient energy use, lack of renewable energy infrastructure, pollution from fossil fuels and inefficient water use as well.

In summary, there is a consensus among knowledgeable and observant people in the reality based community that our present trajectory in the above issues is unsustainable.

The solution requires the phasing out of all fossil fuels and nuclear fission power plants and replace them with Renewable energy. This energy needs to be harvested within 100 miles or less from the highest energy users on the planet, the large cities, in order to have lower transmission and infrastructure costs.

The energy must be baseload quality 24 hours a day with wind and solar to supplement demand spikes along with pumped water storage energy, fuel cell or battery storage technologies.

The renewable energy source that is best suited on a global scale because it is constant, powerful and close to the major cities is the energy from ocean currents.

Observe the two maps below. 



Now let us overlay the Hydrosphere. 


Please observe the result of the merging of the hydrosphere graphic and the population concentration graphic below:


The energy is renewable, does not disturb the biosphere or hydrosphere and can completely replace the polluting energy we now suffer from. The densely populated areas have this powerful source nearby. 

Ocean currents have far more energy potential than ocean tides. The tides alone are estimated to have a potential tidal stream energy capacity of over 120GW globally. Using both plus wind and PV would make a 100% Renewable Energy transition to the 18TW the planet required feasible with technology we now have.

Just in the UK alone, the marine power resource is estimated to be more than 10GW, representing about 50% of Europe’s tidal energy capacity.

In the USA a project is now in the works to provide wind turbine power to the East Coast for up to 1.9 million households. When built out, the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) backbone will stretch 350 miles off the coast from New Jersey to Virginia and will be able to connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines.


Now look at where those wind turbines will be and realize that undersea turbines can be placed close by and save on cabling the energy to the shore. Much more energy can be harvested 24 hours a day from the ocean current. Sharing energy transmission cables from wind and ocean current turbines will save millions of dollars and hasten the transition to 100% clean energy. 




As the new, clean energy replaces dirty energy, full electrification of the economies to eliminate the internal combustion engine for power plants, vehicles and factories will clean the air in large cities.

With plenty of renewable energy to electrify the planet and eliminate the internal combustion engine pollution, the worldwide potable water problem can be solved anywhere on the planet that the relative humidity is above 23% (any place it is not a desert climate) by extracting water from the ambient air.

The waste water can, given all the ocean current energy, be processed for agricultural fertilizer (eliminating petrochemical fertilizers).

In this way, we will imitate the biosphere in turning our waste into a nutrient that benefits all life on earth, not just humans.
 
A. G. Gelbert