The next big frontier for renewable energy could be underwater

When talking about hydroelectric generation, we mean places with water flow, naturally uneven or through enormous artificially created dams. In fact, it is the natural flow of water that allows the generation of electricity. Waterfalls and dams only enhance this.

For if the ancients already used water mills, why not develop technology to do the same, in a modern way?

That's what a number of companies and projects are doing: generating energy directly in the riverbed or from the sea currents. See below some ideas being developed.

• Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), a US marine renewable energy company, which develops technologies that generate electricity from sea, river and ocean currents.

• Aquantis, also from the United States, develops and sells ocean current turbines for ocean energy generation.

• Sharks, Submarine Hydrokinetic And Riverine Kilo-megawatt Systems, Hydrokinetic Turbines (HKT) for tidal and riparian currents, especially for remote communities without connections to the electrical grid.

Cost is still the problem, but it should gradually fall, as has happened with wind power, por example.

Click on the image below to see all that in a video from the World Economic Forum. It is also worth reviewing our post “Wave Line Magnet”: the wave energy converter” .