Wave Energy Desalinization Plant Experiment in Gulf of Mexico

Some companies are not content to try to develop just one kind of technology. Consider, for instance, the wave energy desalinization plant that will launch by the end of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.

There are always problems facing the human race. Two of the bigger issues we will confront in the near future are water and energy. To be concise, both are under pressure and our ability to deal with these scarce resources is the focal point of much of the angst in the world. While there is plenty of water, close to 97 percent of it is salt water which we cannot drink. Easy oil is also becoming a scarce commodity, which leads to more aggressive approaches which we can all see the risks of in the Gulf of Mexico.

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One company is trying to tackle both issues this year. It has received a permit to launch a wave energy desalinization plant in the Gulf of Mexico and hopes to have it on the water by the end of 2010. The plant floats on the water. It is designed to use eighteen large wave energy platforms under the platform to pump water through a generator. The generator will spin and electricity will be produced. It is much like happens in a hydroelectric dam, but on a much smaller scale.

The electricity produced will then be used to carry out the second task of the ambitious project. It will power a reverse osmosis system that will separate the salt from the water creating drinkable water. In somewhat of an irony, the salty sea will provide the power necessary to take the salt out of it. The platform is owned by Independent Natural Resources and is attracting great attention.

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The prospects of a successful test of this desalinization plant are almost too large to contemplate. Drinking water is in short supply around the world and climate change is making things worse. Sea water is plentiful, obviously, and most of humanity lives along shorelines. If a self-powered desalinization platform could simply be parked off the coast of towns and cities, the drinking water issue would be greatly alleviated.

Humanity faces many problems. It is easy to become cynical when looking at them. That being said, humanity has proven time and again to be very creative when it is forced to be. The wave energy desalinization plant might just be another example of that.

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