Catch that wave

摘要

Researchers eye clean energy possibilities along Portuguese coastrnMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers are working with Portuguese colleagues to design a pilot-scale device that will capture significantly more of the energy in ocean waves than existing systems, and use it to power an electricity-generating turbine. Wave energy is a large, widespread renewable resource that is environmentally benign and readily scalable. In some locations - the northwestern coast of the United States, the western coast of Scotland, and the southern tips of South America, Africa and Australia, for example - a wave-absorbing device could theoretically generate 100 to 200 megawatts of electricity per kilometre of coastline. But designing a wave-capture system that can deal with the harsh, corrosive seawater environment, handle hourly, daily and seasonal variations in wave intensity, and continue to operate safely in stormy weather is difficult. Chiang Mei, the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been a believer in wave energy since the late 1970s.