Here is an announcement of projects which are tapping wave motion to
pump seawater to the top of high cliffs for controlled release to
generate power;
http://www.millennial.org/mail/talk/fmf-eng/hyper/3212.html
At Kunigami, water is lifted by pump to a reservoir 150 meters above sea
level and released en masse to generate electricity at an underground
facility before being returned to the sea. Power can be supplied when
needed at any time after the preliminary pumping work is complete. =
Maximum capacity is 30,000 kilowatts for six hours, enough to supply
households accounting for 30,000 people. =
For this reason, pumping up sea water is seen as a means of
complementing nuclear power at peak times. In recent decades, demand for
power has risen rapidly. Total electrical output in 1975 was 7.1 million
kilowatts. =
This had doubled by 1982, and in fiscal 1990 output was 18
million kilowatts. Major electricity companies are already proceeding
with plans to meet demand with some of the world=92s biggest
power-generating facilities: One will begin turning out 2.16 million
kilowatts in fiscal 2002 and a 2.7-million-kilowatt plant will go online
in fiscal 2003. =
The coming age of information technology is expected to place an even
greater burden on power resources and further stretch the bounds of
fluctuation in demand. Thus the importance of this new power-generation
technology will gradually grow. =
The greater the distance between the reservoir and the underground
generator, the greater the amount of power that can be generated. For
this reason, the best locations for this kind of facility are those that
take advantage of cliffs and other ruggedcoastal terrains.
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Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com
http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science"
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