Let's stick two extremely clever ideas together. One is the use of tide or wave power to generate electricity, which we've proved works but I imagine one of the main issues would be the cable to connect it to the shore. It's almost as if these sea-based power generation solutions were a custom fit for sea-based living estates. . . Hmmm . . . I'll come back to this.
Also read this article about a concept to condense the sea mist and pipe that back to shore. It's just a concept at the moment but it's not a big stretch to imagine it in operation. It would need a pipe back to the shore, and could be anchored quite rigidly in place just offshore. And a ruptured pipe is a bit less of an issue to sealife than a ruptured power cable. Armoured undersea cable is bloody expensive.
Which brings me back to the synergies I can see. I imagine that the water condenser would need energy to make a cooling surface for mist to condense on and be captured. So such a plant would need both a cable to take energy to it and a pipeline to take water back. Leaving us with the armoured electric cable issue.
But suppose - just suppose - that the water condenser was anchored fairly rigidly just offshore. It has wave/tidal generators in the base, supplying power for itself. It only needs a wireless link back to shore to carry commands and data, and a waterpipe. We know how to make good water pipes that don't even cost one tenth of a similar armoured undersea cable, and a break situation would be far more survivable for oceanic life than 440,000V.
Of course, one could in theory use a second pipe and get away with less expensive armouring on the cables, and that way we could send both freshwater AND electricity back to shore. These things could live just a few hundred metres offshore in many places, and form wind-calming channels between them as a bonus for small watercraft to tie up for recreational fishing and diving. At 210m long by 100m tall that gives a 210m section under the water to generate electricity, which I believe would be quite a considerable amount of energy. Probably enough to operate pumps onshore to pump the water onward as well as recovering the water vapour and condensing it.
But here's another thought: Why stay close to shore? You could set up grids of these stations with wave/tidal energy generation, large freshwater tanks to use as ballast to prevent excessive movement - and put floating living modules in between the grid spaces. All you'd need to grow food is fresh water and a source of fertiliser such as poo. On land this would be called aquaponics, so maybe on the seas they'd call it terraponics. You'd have seafood (the structures themselves forming environments for fish), vegetables, fresh water, and electricity to spare.
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| Forgive me my lack of imagination in naming this concept. |
There have been designs and dreams of floating cities, and some enterprising people have built themselves floating islands and live on them, growing their own food, generating their own electricity.
Now imagine floating larger small villages almost completely self-contained, built around freshwater condensors and tide/wave power generators, and so with a surplus of electricity and fresh water they could use electric craft to make trips between the floating cities and the shore, or just have a train of supply boats to stock local shops and eateries, and take back whatever the Marine City produces.
What sort of things? Well, fresh water, fish farmed in farm pens under the structures, aquaponically grown vegetables. Seawater contains materials that can be extracted/refined. So - quite possible.
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