The ocean is majestic and powerful and we’ve been looking to harness the energy from waves to generate power for a long time and Oscilla Power has developed the Oscilla Triton that could potentially produce a third of the power needed for the US — with no moving parts.
The Oscilla Triton is leverages a series of generators that float on top of the ocean’s surface and held in position by underwater cables. The ocean environment is brutal. Not only do scientists have to deal with the brute force power of the waves and develop a rugged application that will take prolonged pounded in the open sea, but as we know quite well in the hobby, the corrosive nature of salt water does not play nice with metal and sensitive electronics and electrical components.
The secret sauce the Triton is that is has no moving parts unlike other systems we’ve covered like the PowerBuoy or CETO buoy. Other generators create electricity by either rotating or displacing a wire coil and magnets, but the Triton uses a magnetostrictive generator that literally squeezes metal rods to create the electric charge.
As editor Meagan Parrish noted at ChemInfo, “As waves interact with the device, there is an alternating magnetic polarity created in the metal that is used to generate electricity.”
This sure does sound promising. In a recent news report from Bloomberg, it was noted that this could potentially power up to a third of the power for the US — good news considering this is a renewable energy source as we deal with mounting issues from global warming partly due to our extensive use of fossil fuels.
This video below explains exactly how the Oscilla Triton works:
[via Scientific Explorer]
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