JUL 09

Shark fins, kelp and whales have already been mimicked for tidal and wind power generation, and now anacondas get their time in the spotlight. Francis Farley, an experimental physicist, teamed up with Rod Rainey of Atkins Oil and Gas to invent a new device that harnesses wave power, but is made of inexpensive materials and is easy to maintain. They have named it the Anaconda because of the snake-like look.

The distensible rubber tube is closed at both ends and filled with water. One end faces the oncoming waves where the wave squeezes it and creates a bulge wave inside the tube. Bulge waves head down the tube, with the outside water accompanying it, pushing it along and causing the bulge wave to grow. Finally, the bulge wave flows past a turbine where energy is generated and fed to shore through a cable.

While only a prototype has been created so far, the inventors are getting back up from the University of Southampton, where lab experiments and studies will help the Anaconda scale up and become a reality. And by scale up, we mean big-time scale up. A fully grown Anaconda would be nearly 700 feet long and 23 feet in diameter, and would gather power from oceanic depths of 130 to 330 feet. But the size is equivalent to its output. One unit could produce 1 megawatt. That’s a lot of power from a big snake. And because the goal is to keep it cheap and easy to maintain, the hope is that the cost of electricity from the snake would only be $0.12 per kWh – a competitive price. Still, it will be about 5 years of testing before we see if the Anaconda pans out. See the Anaconda swim here.

Via Treehugger, University of Southampton, GreenCarCongress

Comments (7)

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Interesting
written by The Food Monster, July 09, 2008

http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com
Wow, I never would have thought you could capture energy from water in a Tube, pretty neat.

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Ingenious
written by Clinch, July 09, 2008

Is the $0.12 per kw what is currently achievable, or is it their target?
But either way, it could conceivable become cheaper, and rising prices of other energy, it will become even more advantageous.

It's an ingenious idea, despite being a (relatively) simple concept, but the naming is terrible. I think an electric eel related name would have been far better.

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Wave Anaconda running deeper than expect
written by Tom, July 09, 2008

I thought that the energy produced by the wave was proportionately small at depths deeper than 1/2 the wavelength.

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What about the fish?
written by Michael, July 15, 2008

I wonder what the environmental implications of putting a lot of these things in the water might be? 700 feet is quite a distance. What might the chances of this thing whipping around and bludgeoning a school of fish? Or hundreds of them beating up on larger aquatic denizens such as sharks or dolphins?

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...
written by wedding dresses, October 13, 2009

pushing it along and causing the bulge wave to grow. Finally, the bulge wave flows past a turbine where energy is generated and fed to shore through a cable.

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written by ramya, October 31, 2009

excellent!where do u place this anaconda for its maximum effort

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written by ramya, October 31, 2009

excellent!where do u place this anaconda for its maximum effort

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