New turbine to harness wave power (BBC) {Aye, in Scotland!}

[eppur_se_muova]

A turbine designed to be the forerunner of the UK's first commercial wave power station has been officially switched on in Argyll and Bute.

The device on Islay was set in motion by Scottish Energy Minister and local MSP Jim Mather.

Inverness-based Wavegen plans to install 40 of the turbines off Siader on Lewis in the Western Isles.

It would produce enough power for 1,500 homes and create a much-needed breakwater for boats.
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The turbine has been installed at the company's Limpet facility and was developed with support from the Scottish Government's Wave and Tidal Energy Support (Wates) scheme.
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(not much) more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7532510.stm

[spin]

1. Wave power is an excellent alternative energy source...

Locating wave turbines in the Gulf stream could be a big step in finding energy independence. Our biggest problem is getting Congress to support alternative energy programs over Big Oil.

Because the Gulf Stream is driven by our planet’s spinning on its axis and the steady trade winds, its flow rate off of South Florida is nearly constant. Properly placed water turbines having the same rated capacity as the aforementioned wind machines should have capacity factors of between 75 and 95 percent. Because of these much higher capacity factors, the actual output for the Gulf Stream Turbine, having the same rated capacity, should be between 14,201,702 and 19,273,752 kilowatt-hours per year – or about three times more than that produced by the wind turbines in the nation’s best locations. And, as previously stated, there are no potential wind sites in our southeastern states. If any wind turbines were to be placed in Florida, their capacity factors would be near zero.
http://wdstudio.net/gulfstreamturbine/compard.htm

While I believe we will need to do some new drilling in the short run, we need to develop a comprehensive energy program for the long term.

[bhbwl]

2. "Green energy" wrong premise...

There can be no such thing as "green energy" for several reasons.

First, the jury's still out on what these machines do to marine life. We know what they do to individual fish--they shred them up as you'd expect. But dropping some monstrous leviathan into an ecosystem we're only just now beginning to discover is hubristic and selfish. After all this time we ought to know better.

Moreover, several of the world's worst corporations in terms of social and economic justice--GE just to name one--are getting their dirty hands all over this technology. Do we really expect the makers of nuclear weapons and landmines to "walk lightly upon the earth" when they sink their hooks into this new scheme?

No. It's not to make the world any better. It's just about the money. More of the same ol' same ol' from the typical oligarchs.

Anything that a robber-baron like T. Boone Pickens or General Electric goes for is automatically wrong.