Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
It's so green, it's UltraGreen!
I had a random idea last night, as we were driving out to Ellensburg to look at another batch of Siberian kittens:
Wave-powered desalination plant.
Think about it. Desalination is an energy-intensive process, which makes it hard for poor countries to do -- they don't have a lot of energy to spare, or energy delivery is intermittent. Many poor countries also exist in arid parts of the world, where water is a constant problem. For those on the coast, there's an abundant supply of water, but it's effectively poisoned by salt.
Wave-generation of electricity isn't a new idea, and I don't think it's terribly hard to implement. Even better, some desalination systems use high-pressure pumps to do their work, which could use kinetic energy straight from turbines, rather than having to convert energy to electricity and back. Stack one on top of the other, and all you need to do is run a freshwater pipe out of the station. Make 'em relatively cheap (a few million dollars each), and they'd be within the grasp of even the poorest countries. The US could probably even figure out a way to donate such stations.
The output is clean water, which can be used or sold as needed. If you need more water, you can put out more stations. Coastal countries could become suppliers of water to nearby landlocked countries.
It makes a lot of sense to me, but I have to admit, I know next to nothing about either wave power generation or desalination. Maybe it's not practical. But it sounds like a good idea to me. I officially place this idea in the public domain -- I'd like to see anyone work with it (and in any case, it seems pretty obvious to me, so I'm sure I'm not the only person thinking about it). (Yup, sure enough, Google reveals the fallacy of ever thinking you've had an original idea.)
Posted at 13:41 permanent link category: /misc
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater