A historic underwater “highway” has been created to power our energy needs.
As we now know, the Earth has vast energy-producing aspects that have catapulted us from a basic species into a complex form of life that needs more and more power to sustain life. Our oceans are yet to be fully explored, and may hold the answer to our collective electricity needs, according to one company.
A new invention is making waves across the international energy market.
How the oceans of our world have provided the energy for life
As we now know, we all came out of the oceans in what is probably the most important step in our evolutionary process.
Some of the earliest forms of life evolved from the primordial batteries that are hydrothermal vents deep in our oceans. Proving that life comes from a wide variety of sources and origin points.
Plankton also play a vital role in creating the very oxygen we breathe, as recent data states that between 50% and 80% of the oxygen in our atmosphere comes from the sea.
Our seas have played a significant role in the stageshow of life, that much is clear.
Water and energy walk hand-in-hand to power humanity
The profoundly important water-energy nexus has become clear to the world.
We use the energy created in modern day soceity to move and treat water for our lives, while the opposite is also true as we use huge amounts of water to create energy for our world.
A recent MoU has revealed that some nations are targeting the power of our natural world to provide the energy needed for the populace.
And as the global population grows with every passing day, innovations in energy generation technology have become a major focus for some nations and companies.
The larger nations of the world require the insane amounts of energy produced by oil and gas, but even that has become harder as new geopolitical issues emerge.
The preconceived notion that the ground beneath us is the only place to get our energy from has been challenged as the renewable energy promise of solar, wind, and hydropower becomes a reality.
Barbados is riding a wave of energy that could one day power entire countries
The beautiful wave-swept nation of Barbados is not just the home of Rihanna; it also holds a secret to producing vast amounts of clean energy from the sea.
The island nation’s government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Wavepiston, a company focused on harnessing the untapped kinetic power in the waves that splash our beaches.
The MoU regards a pilot project which will take place in the shallow waters of Barbados.
A Wavepiston powering an entire country… one day
It will see Wavepiston installing a modular offshore wave energy system that can convert the constant motion of the waves into energy. And here we were thinking wind turbines were the latest energy innovation. How wrong we were.
The system uses a long and flexible string around 1,148 ft in length, which is anchored offshore and fitted with a set of energy collection devices.
It’s like a long bead of energy wire in the ocean.
Each collection device is fitted with a tiny underwater sail that sways back and forth with the motion in the ocean. This oscillating motion powers integrated pumps that send the energy to the shore to be converted into electricity.
For Barbados, the invention powers a future where one day, the entire nation could be powered by the iconic waves of its beaches.
An ocean of energy may be within our reach, and Barbados may be one of the first nations in the world to reach its Net-Zero target by 2030, thanks to the new pilot project.