A team of Norwegian research scientists has unveiled a concept that could store energy on the seabed. Conceived by Subhydro AS, the underwater pumped hydroelectric power plant would use high water pressure to create and store electricity for later use on the shore.

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Post tags: energy storage, renewable energy, SINTEF, subhydro, Subhydro AS, tidal power, water pressure, wave power

Liquid Robotics, a Silicon Valley startup behind the surfboard-sized robots known as Wave Gliders, announced today that the Papa Mau robot completed a record-breaking 9,000 mile trip across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia. During its more than 365 days at sea, the robot reportedly survived shark attacks, weathered gale-force storms and battled the East Australian Current. But the wave-powered robot it reached its destination, setting a new world record for the longest distance traveled by an autonomous vehicle.

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Post tags: australia, Bill Vass, environmental science, liquid robotics, oceanic science, pacific ocean, Papa Mau, renewable energy, robotics, Solar Power, wave glider, wave power, wave powered robot

With some of the strongest tidal currents and most powerful waves in the world just off the coast, it is no wonder that Scotland is looking to develop wave and tidal power. As such, two tidal energy and two wave power developers are currently competing for Scotland’s £10 million Saltire Prize, which aims to draw international attention to the benefits of clean energy.

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Post tags: aquamarine power oyster, meygen project, pelamis, renewable energy, Saltire Prize, Scotland, scotland renewable energy, scottishpowerrenewables, tidal energy, tidal power, wave energy, wave power

Ocean Power Technologies has received Federal approval to begin work on the first commercial wave farm in the US. By tapping into the incredible power of the sea, over 1,000 homes in Oregon could receive clean, renewable energy from the new wave farm by the end of the year. OPT will utilize PowerBuoy technology, which they have been developing since 1994, to create enough energy to displace around 2,110 tons of C02 each year.

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Post tags: alternative energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, ocean energy, Ocean Power Technologies, opt, Reedsport Oregon, renewable energy, wave energy, wave farm, wave power

As a country, Scotland has some of the most aggressive renewable energy targets in the world – the entire nation is working to be completely independent of fossil fuels in the next decade, and has pledged to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2020. You don’t have to be an energy expert to know that’s no small goal, so it’s no surprise that Scotland is embracing practically every clean energy technology it can find. The country recently announced plans to build the world’s first community-owned tidal turbine. The turbine will be deployed in the Bluemull Sound between the islands of Yell and Unst, and used to power a local ice plant and industrial estate. It will be owned by the North Yell community.

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Post tags: "clean energy", community-owned, renewable energy, Scotland, tidal turbine, wave power

A few years ago, there were rumors that a futuristic oceanographic marine vessel would be constructed with the sole aim of exploring the world’s oceans. Known as The SeaOrbiter, it would serve as a scientific laboratory as scientists explore the places that cover two-thirds of our planet and contain 80% of all life on Earth — the oceans. Now it appears the dream is becoming a reality, as the SeaOrbiter team has announced that construction will begin by the end of the year!

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Post tags: "wind power", biodiesel, marine exploration, marine research, marine vessel, oceans, renewable energy, SeaOrbiter, The SeaOrbiter, USS enterprise, wave energy, wave power, wind energy

A California beach was transformed from an ugly trash-filled eyesore to what is now known as the glittering Glass Beach. Throughout the earlier part of the last century, local residents in Fort Bragg, California, used a small section of the beach as a dumping ground for litter and eventually so much waste had been thrown onto the beach that it began to be known as The Dumps. The area was so clogged with trash and pollution that it was finally closed down by the North Coast Water Quality Board, who began cleaning it up in 1967. However one unsolvable conundrum was how to clean up all the minuscule glass fragments that covered the beach – and here’s where the magic happened. Over the course of the next few decades, the waves hitting the sand did their work and voila – the ocean hosted its very own clean-up party, leaving the beach sparkling and new.

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Post tags: beach littering, california beach, California State Park System, cleaning power, dumping ground beach, fort bragg, glass beach, MacKerricher State Park, sea power, the dumps, wave power

Marine Solar Cells (MSC) by Phil Pauley are conceptual hybrid solar and wave energy generators designed to generate renewable energy off shore. The solar wave unit captures wave energy through natural buoyancy displacement and solar energy through photovoltaic cells, taking advantage of natural light reflecting off the ocean’s surface to increase solar capture by 20%. This ability contrasts with conventional solar farms or wave power designs which only harvest one form of power. Hundreds of low-cost solar-wave units could be installed together in off-shore energy batteries or plants, generating thousands of jobs and a new solar-marine industry with worldwide implications.

+ Phil Pauley

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Post tags: "solar energy", eco design, green design, Marine Solar Cells, pauley interactive, phil pauley, phillip pauley, renewable energy, Solar Power, sustainable design, wave energy, wave power

One of the major concerns over the current crop of renewable energy technologies is that they’re pretty expensive compared to dirtier, more conventional fossil fuels. However researchers at Boston University and the Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation think they’ve found a way of producing cleaner, cheaper wave generated energy on demand. Their idea would send a fleet of wave-powered ships out into the middle of the ocean, where they would drop anchor and start gathering energy from the movement of the surrounding waves. This energy would then be stored in on-board batteries, and once fully charged the ships would return to shore where the energy could be distributed into the grid.

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Post tags: "solar energy", Boston University, Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation, green design, Offshore Wind Energy, renewable energy, sustainable design, wave power, wave-powered ship, wave-powered ships

Read the rest of Aquamarine Power Unveils Oyster 800 Wave Energy Generator – Exclusive Photos!

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Post tags: Alex Salmond, alternative energy, aquamarine power, Bifab, Burntisland Fabrications, eco design, Fife, green design, hydro-electric, oyster, renewable energy, Scotland, wave power

The Wave Glider is a solar and wave-powered robot designed by Liquid Robotics to serve as a platform for ocean observation, data collection, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The project has just been awarded $22 million in Series D financing, which will go to further its development as it begins to explore the ocean blue.

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Post tags: liquid robotics, liquid robotics robot, liquid robotics wave glider, series D financing, Solar Power, solar wave power robot, wave glider, wave power

Wave power generators generally take the form of sea snake-like designs that sit atop rolling waves, gathering kinetic energy and turning it into power. However a new idea combines the worlds of wind power and wave power to create underwater kite-turbines. Designed by Swedish renewable energy company Minesto, each underwater kite spans 8-14 meters and features a turbine attached to its underbelly. Each kit is tethered to the sea floor and it can “fly” with the tidal stream in a figure-8 motion.

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Post tags: "wind power", dan jones, minesto, minesto underwater kite turbine, ocean power, renewable energy, seagen, seagen kite turbine, underwater kite turbine, wave energy, wave power

We write a lot about wave power here at Inhabitat, but functional wave farms are few and far between. Now Ocean Power Technologies has hooked up its PB40 PowerBuoy to the grid at the Marine Corps Base in Hawaii, marking the first time waves have provided energy to the U.S. electrical grid.

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Post tags: hawaii, marine corps, oaho, opt, powerbuoy, wave energy, wave power

The World Energy Council just named Australia’s southern shores the world’s most promising site for the development of wave power. Australia has a goal of reducing their emissions by 60 percent of year 2000 levels by 2050. The World Energy Council noted that if Aussies developed just 10% of the country’s viable wave power sites they could meet their quota. That means that if just 20% of the possible wave power sites in Australia were developed, the whole country could be run entirely by the sea.

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Post tags: australian alternative energy, australian efficiency, australian wave power, efficient wave power, hydro power, installing wave power, near shore wave power, ocean power, power by wave, sea power, using wave power, water power, wave power

This turbine may look a bit more stout than most we’re accustomed to seeing, and the double rotor configuration is unusual. That’s because this is not a wind turbine, but rather a new underwater turbine unveiled by Atlantis Resources Corporation as the world’s largest tidal turbine which is due to be installed in the waters off of Orkney, Scotland later this summer. Called the AK-1000, it is over 70 feet tall and weighs more than 130 tons, and should regularly generate 1 megawatt of electric power.

Hat tip to @hottopicnz

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Post tags: ak 1000, green energy, green power, orkney, renewable energy, Scotland, tidal power, underwater turbine, water turbine, wave power

This just in: Aquamarine Power just unveiled its freshest wave generator design this morning! Dubbed the Oyster 2 (you may remember our coverage of the original Oyster), the new renewable energy generator is about 26 meters long and packs a mean punch – Aquamarine Power says that even a small Oyster farm could power 12,000 homes onshore! Check out the video of the plant after the jump.

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Post tags: aquamarine power, generator, hydropower, offshore, oyster, oyster 2, renewable energy, water pump, wave, wave power

The mythical god of the sea would be proud of his new clean energy-generating namesake. Danish company Floating Power Plant will be announcing plans for their prototype Poseidon 37 power generator today at the Nordic Green II a conference in Merino Park, California. The 230 meter long commercial plant borrows technology used to keep oil rigs afloat in raging seas and will produce 50 gigawatts of hydro and wind power a year.

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Post tags: "wind power", California, Denmark, floating power plant, hydro power, merino, offshore wind, poseidon, poseidon 37, renewable energy, sri international, wave power

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Post tags: aquaculture, climate refugees, concept, eco design, farming, Floating Island, floating plastic, food production, green design, gyre, island, pacific gyre, pacific ocean, recycled island, Recycled Materials, renewable energy, Seaweed, self-sufficient, Solar Power, Sustainable Building, wave power, whim architects

America is getting its very first wave power farm! Ocean Power Technologies, a New Jersey-based firm, is currently installing giant buoys off the coast of Reedsport, Oregon. Once all ten buoys are in place, developers hope to use them to harness the energy of wave motion and generate power for hundreds of area homes.

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Post tags: "wind power", electricity from waves, energy from waves, Ocean Power Technologies, Portugal wave farm, Reedsport, wave power, wave power in Oregon

The Pacific Ocean could soon be lighting up the beautiful city of San Francisco as a tidal-energy project planned for the waters near the Golden Gate Bride is now in the final stages of acquiring the necessary permits for implementation. The project, which has been in the works for over four years, will produce 10 to 30 megawatts of energy with the potential of up to 100 megawatts, and is anticipated to be the largest energy generator off the California Coast.

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Post tags: green design, renewable energy, San Francisco, sustainable design, tidal energy, wave power