Breakthrough Ocean Energy Concept

Hybrid nanogenerator harvests hard-to-reach ocean energy

Lisa Zyga, June 21, 2016 (PhysOrg)

“Energy from the ocean, or ‘blue energy,’ is [adequate to meet all of the world's energy needs but is underexploited because there is not yet any] effective way to harvest it economically and with reasonable efficiency…The main problem is that ocean waves are irregular and pass by at low frequencies, whereas most energy harvesters operate best with waves that have regular amplitudes and high frequencies…[Harvesting Broad Frequency Band Blue Energy by a Triboelectric–Electromagnetic Hybrid Nanogenerator from the Georgia Institute of Technology describes] a device that can harvest ocean waves in a very broad frequency range that encompasses almost all of the ocean wave energy spectrum, including the hard-to-reach low frequencies that are inaccessible to most harvesters…[It consists of an] electromagnetic generator (EMG), which has traditionally been the main approach for harvesting ocean energy [and is] well-suited for harvesting waves at high frequencies and fast rotation speeds [along with a] triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which has only recently been investigated for ocean energy applications [and] works better in the low-frequency range and at slower rotation speeds…” click here for more

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