Surfing Waves

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/33125143/first-wave-produced-electricity-in-us-goes-online-in-hawaii?sf36340662=1 so they are finding other uses for waves. Hopefully it won't screw up the environment or any surf spots.

If viable, it will be important to foresee the impact when millions are built. It took THIS to get China working on emissions control.

It doesn't cause any trouble norway powers like a tenth of their country using it, it uses open ocean currents for energy not really shore waves so it won't be bothering sailors nor surfers, plus it's a very clean way of getting power along side wind turbines and solar panels

In everyone's minds solar and wind and wave energy seems so clean because those forms of energy generation aren't emitting visible smoke but they do pollute in other ways. I hope that people won't just assume they are better than burning stuff and actually pay attention to the pollution from these forms of energy.

oldmansurfer wrote:In everyone's minds solar and wind and wave energy seems so clean because those forms of energy generation aren't emitting visible smoke but they do pollute in other ways. I hope that people won't just assume they are better than burning stuff and actually pay attention to the pollution from these forms of energy.

Solar panels and Wind turbines and water turbines do not cause any kind of pollution other than during the manufacturing process where they make the parts and assemble them, obviously involves burning fossils fuels some way some how but once installed they can't cause any pollution, water currents, wind and sun rays all have one thing in common, they're all energy produced by the sun, wind is caused by differences in temperature caused by the sun, same goes for water, as long as the sun is still there, we will have all the energy we want

all of these have friction, require lubrication and may heat up emitting substances or break releasing substances may require batteries which can be bad for the environment. The moving parts wear down releasing particulate matter into the environment. Wind turbines can cause noise pollution which can have health effects on those living near them. Admittedly wind turbines are pretty good chemical pollution wise depending on how they are made and what they are made of but they still cause local pollution on a small scale. You already mentioned the manufacturing part of it.

It's not zero pollution, it's just a whole lot better than the alternative. I don't think should reject something better just because it's not perfect

I do wonder about the environmental impact that installing the solar panels causes when they are placed on hillsides instead of rooftops or preexisting buildings. Isn't that negatively impacting flora and fauna of that plot of land more so than buoys in the ocean? Yet I guess it's probably the lessor of the evil compared to coal burning. Pretty much there's no black and white but just different shades of gray.

dtc wrote:It's not zero pollution, it's just a whole lot better than the alternative. I don't think should reject something better just because it's not perfect

Of course not but my point is lets not assume something is better just because we dislike something else. We are affecting the environment with everything we do we just need to keep track of what effects it all has ultimately and not assume it is better just because it doesn't emit smoke.

I can't think of a better use for America's bloated military budget. Hopefully, we'll get some technology that can do some good.

RinkyDink wrote:I can't think of a better use for America's bloated military budget. Hopefully, we'll get some technology that can do some good.

Yeah since nuclear weapons just aren't enough for the, they're gonna make a bomb to blow up the entire planet