WEBVTT - Can oceans power the world? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.400 from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.160 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chucker's Bryant 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.520 that makes this stuff you should know? And the heavy 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.560 index finger of Matt Frederick. Yeah did you hear that? 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.600 Oh yeah, it was like an ant boat coming down 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.760 on something. Nobody push his record, Like Maddie, one of 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.040 my friends has um finger tips, just the fingertips that 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.640 look very much like big toes all across and um, 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:43.440 they're big. He has big, huge fingertips. Is is what 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.400 you like? The finger is just narrow and then it 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.239 balloons up at the end really freakishly. So he'd be 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.120 a good bass player, I would think, maybe, So I'll 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.720 ask him you should do that, Chuck. Do you remember 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:02.040 we have talked about capturing enter g right, because energy 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.840 can neither be created nor destroyed, It can only be captured. 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.959 We talked about several ways to do this. Yes, well, 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:10.319 one of the ways we talked about, um was by 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:15.039 putting basically what amount to wind turbines underwater, and there 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.560 was a we did under water turbines. Yeah, sure we did, right, 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:21.800 I think so it's hard to tell these days. Well, 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.640 if we didn't, that's good because we're going to cover 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.520 that again in this podcast. I think we did because 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.200 we talked about Verdant technology and they were the ones 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:35.800 who put some in the Hudson, didn't we East River? Yes? Sure? Okay, so, 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.000 um they put some into two thousand and six. It was, 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:41.400 you know, to to wide acclaim. This is a huge project. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.440 They were gonna just power large parts of New York 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.520 with this technology. And they went back to check on 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.440 them and they found that, um, all but two of 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:56.240 their wind turbines were just completely in shambles. It's one 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:05.400 of the great challenges in underwater energy production BINGO. I 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.480 have updates on them. We'll get to that later though. Okay, 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:12.880 luckily for us, right, because the the ocean and well 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.040 bodies of water are this huge untapped resource, well mostly 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.440 untapped resource of energy, there are other ways to capture 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:22.840 energy from the ocean, right, which is what we're going 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.320 to talk about today. Let's do it, and let's start 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.640 with the French, because apparently they've long known they're all 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.640 over it. Yeah, we like all of the major innovations 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.800 that we're pursuing right now came from the French over 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:40.040 the last couple of centuries, right who knew, Well, we 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.120 should just mention the history in in uh long time ago, 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.640 a frenchy and his son who I could not find 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.400 their names. I couldn't either, but they had a pretty 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.440 cool idea. They attached a big lever to the side 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.959 of their boat, and when the ocean moved up and down, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.760 the lever moved up and down, which could potentially power 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:59.720 pumps and saws and things like that. Right, and let's 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.680 cat showing the mechanical energy of wave motion. Very good sense. 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.440 But unfortunately, well or maybe fortunately, the steam engine came 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.800 along kind of rendered that. Unfortunately for him, his idea 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.160 was rendered moot. But thanks to the rest of us, 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.280 because steam energy turned out to be a pretty cool 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.080 thing the steam engine did. About a hundred years after that, 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:25.280 another Frenchman used heat energy from the ocean to generate power, 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.520 but it was not very cost effective, so that died 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.400 as well. And then uh nineteen sixty six there was 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:36.360 finally some success once again in France. In Britain, Yeah, 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.280 and the on the Ross River and uh, it still 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.920 operates today, and it is actually, from what I can tell, 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:47.040 that the biggest success, right, that's yeah, and it's because 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.640 it's actually generating electricity quite a bit, two D forty megawatts, 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.840 which is uh about that's better than a wind farm 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.480 and that's yeah that typical. Not quite as good as 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.400 a coal fire power plant, but um it is better 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.840 than a typic coal wind farm, and um it is 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.320 far and away I think the most successful UH Ocean 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.760 Energy UM outfit running right now. Right. Yeah, well that's 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.400 on the river though, was it. Yeah, So it's capturing 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.520 the energy of the tide. There's also you can you 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:22.200 can capture the energy of the heat differential, right, and 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.520 you can capture the mechanical energy right with ways. There's 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.640 three ways, three at least, yeah, yeah, exactly right, because 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:35.159 there's also the currents underwater turbines. It's four, I mean, 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:40.000 the ways to capture energy. Right, let's talk about ways. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.280 This one is my favorite because there's so much to it. Right, 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.240 there's mechanical energy that can be captured, kinetic energy that 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:51.080 can be converted into useful mechanical energy. Basically, what you 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.159 do is you want to power somehow power turbine or 0:04:55.320 --> 0:05:01.560 a piston to create electric city from a generator. Right. Yeah, 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.119 and waves move thanks to the wind, create big crest 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.680 and troughs. And at one point someone looked at those 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.720 and said, hey, that's pretty consistent. I bet we could 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:17.800 capture that. Um. It is very consistent, is very predictable, right, Um. 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.320 Waves are found all over the place, so they actually 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.479 can bring energy from other parts of the globe to you, 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:29.800 to you, top of the muffin, to you. Uh and um, 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.000 let's talk about how a wave comes up. Did you 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.359 read this? No, because you're the expert. You're the wave expert. 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:38.479 All right. So waves are the result of a transfer 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.960 of solar energy to the water, to the ocean. Okay, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.560 so did you know that wind is really just a 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.440 creation of solar energy, solar radiation, solar heat, and that 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.240 ends up driving the wave. Yes, But it's interesting how 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.280 it starts with the sun. It does. It does start 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.800 with the sun, Chuck, thanks for that segue. Um, this 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.359 sun does not heat the earth evenly, right, right, So 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.960 there's different pockets of air, surface air that are heated 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:12.159 more quickly than others. They rise, okay, and as they rise, 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.039 the colder air rushes in and the movement of the 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.719 colder air to fill in the space left by the 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:23.960 warmer air. That's wind. That's wind. That's awesome. Okay. So 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.320 when this, when this water, when the ocean is pushed 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.160 by wind enough, long enough, hard enough, fast enough for 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:36.200 far enough distances, waves pick up, right, And that that 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.480 gives even more traction to the wind. So the waves 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.360 just get bigger and bigger. That's why a good storm 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.240 will produce bigger waves. Right. But what you have is 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.640 kinetic energy pushing the water into waves, and that kinetic 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.839 energy becomes stored in the wave. Right. So the wave 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.840 isn't a bunch of moving water. The water actually, as 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.839 this kinetic energy rolls over, it acts as a conveyor belt, 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:02.000 so it moves in a scular motion and delivers this 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.800 big dent amount of kinetic energy to you to capture 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:11.560 if you have a wave converter. Uh, handy, exactly, dude, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.560 Very nice explanation, was it? Yeah? Thanks man? I think so. 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:16.920 It's been a little while since I got one. Right. 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.360 Shall we talk about tides now? Yes, much to the 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.080 chagrin of Bill O'Reilly, we do know what causes tide. 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.440 I'm glad you meant did you see that? Bill O'Reilly 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.280 didn't know that the pull of the moon, the gravitational 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.240 force of the moon, is what creates tides. What's crazy 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.560 is that the atheist was like, well, we don't know, 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.840 but still he was a little flustered. I can he 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.520 was flustered, but a real opportunity to be like everybody 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:44.240 that saw that was on the edge of their seats saying, 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:49.200 say it the moon, and the guy was like, yeah, well. Unfortunately, 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:51.600 no steps in there to correct him. I haven't heard 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.760 a response from him either. I'm curious who Bill O'Reilly. Yeah, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.120 I don't think he's going to come out and address it. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:00.920 At this point, he already looked dumb enough. He didn't care. Okay, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.320 so uh, for those of you don't know what you're 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.800 talking about quickly. Bill O'Reilly was interviewing the head of 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.080 the Atheists of America and said, he explains God by 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.360 the fact that no one can explain what causes tides. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.560 The tides go out, tides come in every day, and 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.840 we can't explain it, and no one knows why. I 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.680 think is what he said. So anyway, it is in 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:22.880 fact caused by the gravitational pull of the moon. Mr 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.400 O'Reilly and Uh. The cool thing about tides is there 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.560 everywhere along the coast. They all coastal areas experienced too 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.000 high tides and two low tides every day and they're 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.200 pretty much on the button. The unfortunate thing is there's 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.480 only about forty places around the Earth where you can 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.600 generate electricity from this because the difference between high and 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:46.840 low tide has to be at least sixteen feet and 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.319 that doesn't happen everywhere. So there's like forty sites around 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:51.720 the world that are suitable. Forty sites and the Bay 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:53.480 of Fundy I don't think we mentioned yet that is 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:57.760 where they're actually doing this, and it's it's a great place. Yeah, 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.920 it's um a narrow inlet and has the highest tides 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.480 in the world fifty feet in a very short cycle, 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.040 so in six hours they can produce a hundred and 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.600 ten billion tons of seawater flow in and out. Yeah, 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.920 that's a lot. Again it is. So that's yeah, and 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.000 they're they're actually generating power there that Fundy. But what's 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.320 crazy is that that when we talked about in Britain 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:23.080 France um two forty megawatts the Bay of fundy with 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.000 that enormous transfer of seawater in and out still only 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:30.880 generates a twenty megawatt um power twenty megawatts of power, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.880 twenty megawatt power just one. So one way they can 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:40.400 do this, Josh, is with uh, like rivers with a dam. Right, 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.559 they can build a title dam essentially and it operates 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.320 kind of in the same way, which is how buddy, 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.360 they don't know if we need to explain that gates 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.640 open up. It's called a beverage or is it a 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:57.200 beverage or barrage barage and the tides Uh. When there's 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.880 an adequate difference in the level of water on the 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.800 oposite side of the dam, the gate opens and allows 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.760 water to flow in across the turbine spinds. The turbine 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:12.000 creates h electricity via generator. Right, So anytime you're talking 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:16.720 about wave action or the movement of water, UH, there's 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.360 going to be some sort of turbine or piston involved 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.920 because that's all you need and it's going to generate electricity. 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.920 It still blows me away that that's possible. Yeah, but 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.480 it's so simple too. We just have to figure out 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.000 how to do it more efficiently and then you know, 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:35.280 we'll be able to come up with this nice grab 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:41.280 bag of energy providers. It's right. Yeah, ocean tides Josh 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:46.280 into title currents is another way. Yeah, what are title currents? Well, 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.120 title currents are well what bring in the tides? Are 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.280 the currents that are created by the tides coming in 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.560 and out. Right. The problem with the title currents is 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.560 that they're not constant. Like you said, they happen twice 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:02.240 a day in and out each twice a day, right, 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.920 too high, too low. So you've got four tidal currents. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.439 If you're set up to um generate power as it's 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.680 going in and out, well, how would you do that? Though? 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:16.760 Underwater turbines it's basically like a wind underwater wind farm. 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.760 I didn't realize that, like sixty six foot propellers underwater spinning. 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.040 But that's what they put. Was it the East River? 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:26.680 That's what they put in New York? They had these 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.280 in there. Still, Yeah, well at least two more than that. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.319 We'll get to that. It's it's paying off finally, So Chuck, 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.959 that's that's electrical. As as we said electrical, there's going 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.800 to be some sort of turbine or piston that is 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.320 moved up and down by the the either the well 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.920 the movement of water, whether it's waves, currents, tides, whatever. 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.760 But then there's also um thermal energy big time. You 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.320 want the stat Yeah, the ocean, the sun provides the 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.000 equivalent of two hundred and fifty billion barrels of oil 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:07.960 per day. Yeah in the ocean. Yeah, that's that's a lot. Yeah, 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.240 that's a lot. More sits out there and collects all 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:12.160 this heat from the ocean. I think in the unit 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.120 in the US we use twenty one million barrels of 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.040 oil a day. And this is now the problem is 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.040 is like that's across the entire ocean, that's across the 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.480 Earth's surface. We we don't know how to do that. 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.280 We're still working with full of vite ex cels, like 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.520 how does this work? How do we make this happen? 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.360 So that's that's as much as we could ever possibly capture, right, 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.320 but still even if we get a significant portion of 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:42.400 that and can convert it into energy, we're on easy Street. Explain, 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.719 Oh tech is ocean thermal energy conversion? Right? Yeah, that's 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:48.160 how they do it, and there's a couple of ways 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:50.760 to do it. There's a closed system there's an open system, 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:52.880 and there's a hybrid system, which is open and closed 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:57.719 system mixed together. So with a closed system, um, you 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.480 usually you take some sort of low boiling point liquid 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:06.000 like ammonia, which has a boiling point of like negative 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.520 twenty eight degrees fahrenheit, right, which I don't understand how 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.880 windex works. Then that's something I think we need to 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.480 look up index works. Yeah, has ammonia in it? Right? 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.199 How is it kept liquid? Because I can tell you 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.679 my the the area under my sink is warmer than 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:27.439 negative twenty degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, I mean, but there's bottles 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:31.960 of ammonia to just playing ammonia. Right. I guess Bill 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:36.120 O'Reilly was right, Chuck. Um. So in a close in 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.640 a closed system, you take ammonia, um, you expose it 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:45.679 to sea water warmer seawater, right, uh, and it immediately 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:50.040 vaporizes into gas. As that gas expands, it pushes a turbine. 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.080 There's another turbine, right, It's like a steam engine. Wood 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:57.080 powers a generator, and then the gas has moved into 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.160 another chamber where it encounters co old sea water and 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.640 converts back into liquid, and it's pumped back into the 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.760 original chamber again. See I love systems like this where 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.360 it's just a loop. Stuff becomes vapor, then it goes 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.560 back to what it was, then it becomes vapor again. 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.920 Seems real efficient, closed system, right yes, yes, And then 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:21.040 there's the open system, right yeah, And that's a little 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.640 bit of a different principle. It's warm surface water, but 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.080 he's a vacuum chamber. They move all the air and 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.240 because of magic, when you do this, the seawater boils. 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:35.560 Is that insane clown posse? I think so? So it 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:39.000 actually boils and that produces steam, like pure water steam, 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.800 and then that can drive the turbine. And then just 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:44.960 like with the ammonia, you pump cold sea water back 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.680 in cools, the steam changes it back into water and 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.640 back again back again. The cool part about this is 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:54.680 they can create fresh water as sort of a byproduct, 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:59.560 which is awesome. That's huge desalienation is they've had a 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.600 lot of t auble doing that successfully in a large 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.760 scale right right. Um we talked about that in manufacturing 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.640 water and some of the other ones. Um. But yeah, 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.800 if you if you create the steam out of sea water, 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:14.840 they found that it's almost pure water, pure freshwater. No 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.520 salt and you can drink that. So yeah, they're trying 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.240 to figure out how to use open cycle systems and 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.000 the hybrid system, which, like I said, combines closed in 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:28.360 open systems. Um, but both the hybrid and the open 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.800 create fresh water. And I think they figured out that 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:37.520 a single too megawatt oh tech plant, either open or hybrid, 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:44.080 could produce cubic meters of desalinated water every day, which 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.720 is that I can't drink that much. Yeah, you can 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:51.600 drink that much coffee. I do, which is why I 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.920 spill it right now. Unfortunately, otech systems aren't producing a 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.000 lot of electricity, but they think that the potential there 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.520 is pretty great. Other people are investing in that at 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.080 this point. Yeah, that seems to be the one that's 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:08.720 attracting the most investment dollars right now. I wonder why, uh, 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.560 what do you mean why people are going that way? Yeah, 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.440 I don't know. Maybe it's the most efficient, cost effective 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:16.440 way at this point, who knows. I think it's actually 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.680 the most expensive, to tell you the truth. Really, I 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.160 mean it's not the most efficient it maybe it's true, 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.360 but it's it's the most expensive. I think. Well, right now, 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.400 what's going on is there's a lot of research and 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:31.440 development happening and all these fields because they think the 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:36.440 ocean is really where it's at. We talked about Verdant Power. UM, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.600 here's a little update on their system. They are in 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.680 phase three right now. They, like you said, they had 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:48.280 some problems in the demonstration phase because marine environments are 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.720 pretty rough on everything. Just ask anyone who like lives 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.000 on the beach with a car. Some fishes like I'm 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:58.119 swimming here. That's true. We'll get to that as controversial. 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.920 UH talked about it before, but yeah, that's true. In 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:06.040 the demonstration period though, they did produced a free flow system. 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.520 They produced elect They called it excellent hydrodynamic, mechanical and 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.120 electrical performance grid connect the power with no quality problems, 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:22.320 fully by directional, continuous unattended operation. So they don't even 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.000 have some dude down there right. I wonder how it's 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.639 that job would pay exactly. In the end, they produced 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.480 seventy megawatt hours of energy to two end users and 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.000 UM right now, they applied for a permit basically in 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.480 just a couple of months ago. Last month in December, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.600 they applied for a permit to make it real, and 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.200 they're waiting on. All of that was just they just 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.680 wrote that story down there, like now let's make this real. Well, 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.879 they want to do it, you know, in earnest and 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.159 not just demonstrate, and they think they're at that point now. 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.360 So they're waiting on I think right now they're waiting 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.600 on New York City to say, take over the East 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.080 River or this portion of it and do it so 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:06.000 to megawatts uh, seventy megawatt hours of energy families to 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.560 two end users. I don't think they were families. I 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.879 think they were probably power plants or something. Ohh gotcha, 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.800 Yeah are you sure? No, I'm not because then user 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:16.520 could also be like some guy with a hot plate 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.840 and he's like, hey, I'm my hot plates working just fine. 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.639 The UK is is who is leading title turbine research 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.159 right now, though, So hats off to you, is it 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.000 the UK? I thought this has something? Well, no, they're 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:31.879 they're all dabbling in its Spain in Portugal, but the 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.240 UK is currently ahead of the game in in this 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.239 kind of stuff so far. Wow. Well, yeah, that's off 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.639 for sure. And yeah they took the mantle from the 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:43.960 French and ran with it, right The French are like, 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.160 it's two accents for me to zero for you today. 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.119 That's a switch. So why is this good? Why are 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.320 we doing this? What are the environmental advantages? Well, one 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:59.560 of the things we said was the um with wave energy. Right, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:01.800 I didn't give you a stat that's going to blow 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:06.040 your mind. Wave energy alone, right, the kinnectic energy found 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:11.720 in the motion on the ocean, right could point zero 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:17.320 two percent of that, right, could power the entire planet. 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.720 Point zero two I'm sorry, point of the energy, and 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.600 ocean waves could power the entire But still it's pretty 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.920 impressive point to, not two point anything point to. So 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:29.480 what you're saying is we just need to be able 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.920 to harness a very tiny percentage. Yes. Plus also the 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:34.960 good thing, the good thing about waves, which is why 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.119 I throw my weight behind it. As compared to a 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:43.239 wind farm, right, Um, you've got three times the density, right, 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.840 so conceivably moving it about the same rate as as 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.760 you know, wind five knots or something like that, you 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.680 would have three times the amount of energy capable of 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:58.080 being captured and transferred into usable electricity. Yeah, it says 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.120 a current, a water current, ocean current running five miles 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.920 an hour can turn a tidal turbine thirty revolutions per minute, 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:08.760 and that is very much more than the wind. Well, 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.640 just and don't forget. I mean we're talking about turbines 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.399 that are propellers that are sixty ft across each. I 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.200 mean that's a lot, yes, thirty times a minute, it's 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.920 like almost once every few seconds. Uh. They also run 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:26.800 silent and run deep. So a lot of people complain 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:31.280 about the noise of wind farms, the buzzing, the buzzing, 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:35.600 the constant buzzing, the aerodynamics noise, and you know they're 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:37.639 underwater so you don't see it. Is. The funny thing 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.560 is that's such a like a human centric way of 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:42.480 looking at it, like, oh, it doesn't make any noise 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.080 because we're above water, right, who cares about what it 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.159 sounds like below water? Surely placing these things in the 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.400 ocean are going to have like a huge impact, right well, 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.480 and that's the downside. Might as well get to that. 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.280 You can't you can't just throw these things in the 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.720 ocean and have no impact on marine life. Gonna kill 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:05.520 some fish, definitely disrupt some some spawning patterns will take 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.120 Like an otech system, right, a closed otech system, if 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:13.639 say it's battered about by a particularly bad typhoon, that 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.640 closed system may not be closed any longer, and you've 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:19.200 got a massive ammonia spill in a local area in 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:23.400 the ocean, and yeah, that's gonna kill some fish, right. Um, 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.239 same with any grease that you might need to keep 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:31.520 a piston moving properly. There's just there's a lot of 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:35.520 factors involved. But conceivably, I'm I'm pretty sure you could 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:39.720 do a um what are those called that that risk 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:44.360 assessment people do, like a cost benefit analysis versus say 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:49.239 something like a power plant UH is spewing out right? 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:53.360 How how much couldn't you compare that pretty easily? I think? 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.840 And I wonder if if the impact would be much 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:03.239 less severe on ocean environment than right above ground. Well, 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:05.440 there's going to be an impact. You can't create electricity 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.160 without some sort of impact on something in the environments, 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.320 like making so exactly got to break a few eggs. 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.919 So I think the ideal is to find the minimal 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:19.440 impact with the maximum payoff. Right now, it is not 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:24.280 ocean UH power because it's still heavily in the R 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.040 and D phase, which means it's expensive. But as the 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:31.240 kinks get worked out, like the solar panels were, I 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:33.320 mean they're still expensive, but they were way more expensive 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.440 twenty years ago because they didn't work right all the 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:38.120 time and you had to put more money into making 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.320 them work right. But once you get the kinks worked out, 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:42.600 it becomes a little more efficient, little cheaper. So maybe 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:45.480 it'll it'll close that gap a bit. Yeah, my my 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.680 money and I think we should talk about why tides, 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:54.040 title damns barages don't are have are problematic problem because 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.960 they kind of captured my attention, like I was thinking, well, yeah, 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.960 it's build some hydro electric electric damns these forty sites 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:03.720 and that will help tremendously. Sure. Part of the problem 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:07.240 is the whole point of um title movement in a bay, 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:10.119 or one of the benefits of it, UH is to 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:16.560 filter out impurities, silt, crud, dead crayfish, all that stuff 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.720 sucked out and you know turned into food or you 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:22.399 know filtered into the rest of the ocean. Right If 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.800 you have a damn there, that's that's UH making that 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:29.280 more difficult or preventing that. In some cases, the local 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:33.920 environment around that bay suffers because the water purity plummets. 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:38.800