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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (9044)	4/10/2009 11:30:54 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24213

Is this the answer to energy crisis? Friday, April 10, 2009, 10:00Comment on this story A WESTCOUNTRY mechanic-turned inventor has successfully tested a wave energy device that could power homes across the world. Dartmouth-based engineer Alvin Smith says investors in the Middle East have expressed "enormous interest" in his Searaser device, a pump-based system which stores energy from the sea in nearby reservoirs. The machine, which fell out of an idea to power cars with compressed air, works by harnessing the kind of power locked within waves that can lift a 500-tonne ship. First, a floating piston pumps water on to the shore. The water is then released to a hydro-electric turbine, which creates the energy. Mr Smith, 62, who ran a garage in Surrey for around 30 years before working as a builder in Dartmouth when he moved to the region 10 years ago, says what makes the device unique is that the power can be stored until it is needed. Patents have been filed for Searaser in 130 countries, and Mr Smith feels that, if 11,000 of them could be scattered around the UK's coastline, it would provide enough power for every home in the country. A two-week trial has just been completed at Blackpool Sands in South Devon, which he says proved the concept. Around £250,000 has been spent on bringing the Searaser to this stage, and Mr Smith says it would not have been possible without the financial assistance of three Devon businessmen: Nigel Hart, Geoff White and Steve Price. "Without their help, it would not have been able to go forward as quickly as it has," said Mr Smith, who added that the germs of the idea emerged 10 years ago. He is now negotiating a contract to construct the first Searaser system in the Middle East. "We want it to go worldwide," he said. "The people who we are talking with are going to want to take it across the world. When you combine that with hydro-electric power, creating a constant, controllable power, you have something that could answer the world's, not just the UK's, energy problems." He says there are redundant reservoirs across the UK, including the South West, that could be adapted to store the water to power the turbines. Mr Smith said he has also developed a system involving floating water containers, which meant the devices could be planted many miles off the sea. He said: "The potential is enormous. We have plenty of waves around the west coast of the UK and plenty of seawater. There is an abundance of energy there which we have got to use." thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk