Reply #18: It appears to me to be... [View All]

[DeSwiss]

...the antithesis of a dam. Dams are huge obstructions (and often destructive as you mention) because they're designed to be. It's a necessary design for them to be able to create the levels of water pressure which will translate into 5 to 6 mph water flows, which is what is needed using current turbine technology. This is a totally different approach. These devices don't obstruct the natural environment, but rather sits within it and uses its natural wave and current motion, and then transfers the energy from that motion into an electrical grid.

The design discussed in the article and http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/">here, state the devices are tethered, meaning they are suspended underwater and deep enough to avoid interfering with the waterway's normal uses. Dams suck all kinds of wildlife (and the occasional human) into the massive maws leading to the turbines to create the water pressures for constant electrical flows. We have them everywhere I look here in TVA land. These devices apparently don't generate any kind of motion or wave action themselves, so I don't see how that could interfere with the growth of vegetation, etc., and thus upset the natural food-chain cycles. But everything we do has some impact.

- But then, we're a part of the environment too. It'll be interesting to see where they go with this....