http://www.vortexhydroenergy.com/ This is being built in the Detroit River right now. It is a device that uses slow moving waters, which most rivers are, to make an energy source. The electricity is cheaper than nuclear and is plentiful and clean. Technology can save us after all.
PS. It is a series of tubes.
I think you meant to put this in Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share and not General Questions. I’ll move it for you.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator
Mundane and pointless. I do not think so.
Environment - The Telegraph Here is another story on it.
From the forum description.
Would you rather I moved it to In My Humble Opinion? 
Hmm. It will be interesting to see how the prototype does.
gonzo, I just closed another thread of yours in GQ because it didn’t contain a question (like this one, which was also placed in GQ.)
Please pay attention to where you place your threads. Don’t put them in GQ unless you are actually asking a question.
Thanks.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I think the idea that we have to settle for coal or nuke is short thinking. There has always been a new idea that changes the calculus. This shows promise. Oddly, there have been no TV or news stories in Detroit about this. I was shocked to see it is being built in Detroit. I talked to my boater friends and they can not picture where it is.
Odd to me is that I haven’t heard anything about it in the trade media.
Here’s info about the Detroit site (Port Authority website article).
Here is a nice presentation about the technology.
I’ve been wondering for years why they haven’t harvested all the free energy in rivers and oceanic tides yet. Someone I was talking to offline said there are no tidal plants because it would kill a bunch of wildlife, to which I suggested nets, and then he said it would slow the tides down too much and wreak havoc on the planet, to which I replied :dubious:.
He really thought we could have that much effect on the tides? Wow.
Give it 100 years of unrelenting and unregulated building and maybe we would have an effect but it would take a lot.
Probably means it’s a scam: Take the money to build a SuperHyperDeluxe Problem-Solver 90000 and then go somewhere warm without extradition.
I don’t think so. You can read the papers they’ve presented, on the linked web site. And the research is being done at the University of Michigan. The prototype is being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
such a coincidence! I put this idea (actually an engineer in our company put it in) into a proposal I am submitting to the Navy. I have no clue about whether it will work, but the engineer thinks it is at least worth mentioning.
I hadn’t heard of this idea before yesterday. Odd.
I suspect it will fall into the same group of great ideas that include tidal power basins, underway turbines, etc. Good technical idea, not enough economics to overcome the existing infrastructure.
Perhaps we will reach the tipping point soon.