SWELL IDEA

Facing a shortage of generating power to satisfy South Africa’s needs, we are looking to other sources to add to Eskom’s power grid, such as massive wind farms, solar panels and costly gas-powered generators.

South Africa has a vast coastline, so why have we not thought of using what we have right under our noses to generate our shortfall from the unrelenting action of the incoming swells of the waves crashing on our shores? My idea would be to build long wooden or concrete piers straight out into the sea, similar to the piers off Durban’s beachfront. Firmly attached to the uprights of the piers, on both sides, could be large cylindrical vessels, open at each end made out of strong, non-corro- sive material with one open end a few metres under the waterline and the opening of the other end level, or slightly protruding above the height of the pier. The vessels could be anything from one to two metres in diameter. A number of these vessels could be staggered at intervals along both sides of the piers. Now, here is the crunch part. At the top (open) end of each of these vessels would need to be fitted a large close-fitting fan with blades that are able to rotate both ways, so that when each heavy swell comes in the volume of air in the vessel is expelled with the fan rotating one way and then when the wave swell drops and passes by, it sucks the air out, forcing the fan to rotate in the other direction. Naturally the fans and components would need to be made of non-corrosive materials.

In essence, heavy ocean swells are rolling in all the time, one after the other. As a swell rises in the cylindrical vessel it will push the trapped air out, spinning the fan at the top open end and, as it moves on, the air will be drawn back into the vessel, but now spinning the fan in the other direction.

With all these constantly spinning fans hooked up to a generating source I’m sure a fair amount of energy could be generated to assist with our present shortage, especially if a number of these piers with their components were situated around our coastline. Not only would this be a continuous source of energy, but also a very costeffective one.