Underwater Wind Turbines Tap River Energy

[BouncyCaitian]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...h/4213223.html

this is cool

[Tobian]

Sounds cool But I'm seeing the headlines now "man blended by tidal machine"

[BouncyCaitian]

if he goes swimming in the East River, he deserves whatever he gets

[JALU3]

This is new technology . . . but new in implementation . . . I've read in euntrepenuer fortune that this technology has been used to power off shore bouys for quite some time now . . . furthermore . . . they are planning to try a test off shore bouy farm to create onshore power on the large scale near Coos Bay in Oregan. If this proves cost effective . . . can anyone say near limitless, clean energy?

[Tobian]

problem is this is what they said about most forms of renewable power.. but they are expensive, and there are limited locations you can put them! It would have lest environmental impact than a lot of technologies and certainly won't 'spoil the view' like others, so at least it has those things going for it

[JALU3]

Well better then soil depleting corn based ethonal . . . as far as cost is concerned. I mean, overtime, these things have a positive power output . . . rather then breaking even.

Here is the thing I was talking about:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15219874/

[black campbellq]

Some enviro-group will be on about fish getting killed, just like the bitched about birds in the windmills out in Cali.

[JALU3]

Is nothing ever good enough?
I mean nuclear . . . if it is done properly, and used for non-weaponization reasons . . . it has very few side effects, save long term storage of the spent fuels. And are those storage issues less of an impact then the current issues with greenhouse gases. That's just one alternative from petro enegy sources.

Futhermore, even if it is an alternate energy sources, is it energy positive, energy neutral, or energy negative.
For instance, I was talking to someone who teaches at UCSD, and he was saying how he was reading that corn based ethonal may only be energy neutral, even possibily energy negative. If this is the case than it isn't a good long term solution to our growing energy needs.