Tapping The Green Power of Earth's Oceans
Saturday, May 15th, 2010Ocean Currents Gives Plentiful Clean Energy
On March 29, 2010, Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), based out of Portland, Maine, launched the Energy Tide 2 (ET2), its Turbine Generator Unit (TGU), the largest ocean energy device deployed in U.S. waters. Designed to harness 60 kilowatts of tidal power (enough electricity to power 20 homes), in Cobscook Bay near Eastport, Maine. It is generating green, renewable energy used at Coast Guard Station Eastport. (more…)
In 2004, Shawn Frayne, a member of a team from MIT visiting Petite Anse, Haiti, found the fishing village near the coast was not connected to an electrical grid, and the only lighting available was diesel-powered or kerosene-based. Frayne recognized that white LEDs powered by a small, very inexpensive wind generator might be better able to power LED lamps and radios in the homes and schools in the area. However, he hit a brick wall – turbine technology is too inefficient at these scales to be a viable option. 
