Taiwan Plans to Build Ocean Power System with Output that Far Exceeds Current Demand
July 20th, 2007Via: Taiwan Headlines:
The government is now discussing the possibility of large-scale ocean current power generation, using the strong Kuroshio current off the east coast of Taiwan to generate up to 1.68 trillion kilowatt-hours per year, officials at cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said Monday.
The project task force, led by Chen Fa-lin — director of Energy and Environment Research Laboratory under Hsinchu-based Industrial Technology Research Institute, is currently working on fine-tuning the guidelines, which will be presented to CEPD senior officials in August or September.
After the project is green-lighted, the possible first step should be setting up a five-megawatt marine turbine off Taiwan’s east coast on a trial basis, with the goal of testing both related technologies and power-generating efficiency, CEPD officials, adding that hopefully, the project can enter the next stage in three years.
“Current power generation is not a new idea, ” officials noted. “Countries like Britain, Canada, Norway, and Australia all have experience in deploying offshore marine turbines with capacities ranging from one megawatt to eight megawatts to support the electricity demand of hundreds to thousands of households.”
“The problem is not the technology itself but how to locate a suitable site — with a current strong enough, an undersea shelf not too deep, and a distance short enough to achieve power supply efficiency,” they added.
However, they explained that based on the surveys done by National Taiwan University (NTU) , the sea area of some 6,000 square kilometers between the eastern county of Taitung and the outlying Green Island in the Pacific Ocean appears to meet all the requirements, and that the maximum potential capacity there exceeds 1.68 trillion kilowatt- hours per year — while Taiwan’s current annual demand of electricity is only about 98 billion kilowatt-hours.
According to the estimates of the project task force, a given site of 25 square kilometers located in the “shallow, high-speed zone” could support the deployment of 1,000 one-megawatt marine turbines, which would have a peak capacity of 1,000 megawatts: equal to the output of Taiwan’s second nuclear power plant.
Chen, the project leader, noted that once the turbines enter commercial operation, Taiwan’s existing coal power plants could be retired, while the nuclear power generators could be used as a backup system — thereby resulting in a great reduction in Taiwan’s total carbon dioxide emissions.
Related: The International Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project
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//MOD Cherenkov is an advocate of kill off. Make sure you pass his comments through that filter. https://cryptogon.com/?p=969#comment-9492 Thanks, Kevin
Of course, for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.
Ocean currents are without a doubt powerful forces. It is certain to be one of the avenues we will pursue in order to ensure business as usual in our bid to put one person on every square foot of the earth’s surface. But, as they say in techno-town, Houston, we have a problem.
As we push more and more carbon into the air, we are creating something many fairly intelligent people are calling Global Warming. You may have heard of this. And, it is that very Global Warming that will cause ocean current electricity generating schemes to fail.
How so? you may ask. The concept is really very simple. As the planet warms, the ice caps melt. If there is enough carbon in the air, we will go through a period much like the era of the dinosaurs where there was no ice on the planet. Should this happen, a couple of things will happen.
First, as the ice melts, the movement of ocean currents will inevitably shift, weaken and in a few cases strengthen. During this transitional phase such ocean current schemes as is being tested by Taiwan will find themselves facing one of those changes in worldwide currents. For those nations which implement these costly systems, they may be facing the loss of billions in investment.
Secondly, once the ice has melted, ocean currents will largely disappear, or at least weaken to the point of being useless as a method of electricity generation. The reason for this is that the temperature differences between the extremely cold Arctic and Antarctic regions and the extremely warm equatorial regions are the engines of the ocean currents. Once that engine is dismantled, the oceans become big stagnant soupy anoxic places with little to no circulation. This is precisely the conditions that existed during the period when shallow seas formed the precursors for oil.
Ironically, these huge engines placed in the path of ocean currents will have the effect of slowing circulation even faster.
Other effects include the disruption of microclimates in the ocean. Animals and plants that have evolved over millions of years to live within the environmental dictates of that ocean current will suddenly find themselves unable to cope. These ocean current generators will further destroy the environment.
Technophiles love these sorts of big scale “solutions,” believing that the most important goal is the nurturing of techno-business as usual. Unfortunately, there is little that “normal” people can do to stop the self-destructive race to technocide. The techies are in love with their machines and not with the planet. The planet is expendable. And that means that they are, in practical terms, no different from a suicide bomber, except that this suicide bomber has the capability to kill all of humanity.
I have to admit, I do think nature favors “culling” of the weak. Unfortunately, it favors the aggressive, strong, bold and sneaky rather than those possessing any other “virtues”. I’m betting that groups within the human race will resort to culling to reduce the population in order to make life better for the cullers whether we like it or not. The Europeans culled the Native Americans nearly out of existence, for a well known and fairly recent example of what I’m talking about here.
That said, there’s no way in hell I’d submit to any type of eugenics program or selective voluntary depopulation. I’d never be convinced that the lottery didn’t favor the rich and therefore powerful. Every other game in the history of the world was tilted in their favor and I’m sure this one would be too.
I mean seriously, if they started this tomorrow, who would you trust to monitor and report its impartiality? CBS? FOX? The alternative media structure?
Hell, half of the alternative media is CURRENTLY screaming bloody murder that our (USA) government is taken over by a criminal cabal and the other half is accusing them of murdering its own citizens to scare the remaining citizens into submission. I don’t know the solution, but I know it’s not voluntary submission to “random sterilization”.
If we’re talking about voluntary sterilization (with heavy compensation) of specimens over 18 without progeny, I’d consider it. Of course, we bitch about the “poverty draft” in the military the way it is, but it would at least be an informed decision.
Hey Cherenkov… you say that the melting of the polar ice caps will nullify the temperature difference between the poles and the equator? Did you pull the rest of your facts out your @$$, too?
The temperature difference doesn’t exist because of the ice. The ice exists because of the temperature difference. The poles, as you may have learned in grade school, generally stay cooler than the equator, being farther away from the sun and all that. I don’t think that increasing the global temperature by any amount is going to change this fundamental truth. Sorry, do some research next time buddy. If you feel the need for a rebuttal, try tike012[at]gmail.com.
@Cherenkov: How defeatist of you. Care to give any other solutions? Couch critic..
Note that those hydro-powerplants might well have paid themselves back before sea-currents change.
Guys, don’t worry about Cherenkov, he most likey has just watched the day after tomorrow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After_Tomorrow
Here’s a quote.
The film has been strongly criticized by scientists for its premise being physically impossible and “absurd.”
Nice one, Kevin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_the_well
Cherenkov is a genius compared with the likes of these other prats.