Thar She Blows!
Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
At a time when energy is in much demand, a new energy source is being explored in the Land Down Under that uses a generator to harness wave, wind and solar energy.
We've nicknamed it "Blowhole" power because it works "like an artificial blowhole," says Tom Denniss, the co-founder of Wave Swell Technology.
The generator has "a big, underwater chamber that's open out the front, so the water is forced into the chamber." Once inside, the water rises and falls, forcing air to pass by a turbine at the top part of the chamber, producing electricity.
The Australian company's UniWave200 generator is currently being tested on Kings Island in a remote part of Tasmania.
The trial is scheduled to last a year and it's hoped that the generator will eventually be able to produce enough energy to power the city of Melbourne.
In addition to providing an alternate source of power, the eco-friendly generator has tested to be environmentally safe for use on the ocean floor.
With three-fourths of the planet made up of water, wave power has the potential to make a whale of a difference in meeting the world's energy needs.
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