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67 Comments
- nunofgs, on 10/30/2007, -2/+32What? Portugal making the news? I'M FROM PORTUGAL. FINALLY!
While this is a great thing, don't give us too much credit. Just this year almost 800 high-schools were closed down, we are in a very serious economic crisis and they want to build a new airport and a TGV ffs!
Last year they closed hundreds of maternity wards, forcing some women to go to Spain to have children!!!
I could go on forever. - blatantninja, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Waves have a ton of energy and this is a great way to begin capturing it. As for those concerned about the 'beauty' of the beach? Would you prefer a coal spewing power plant instead?
- tororosso, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13What's there not to like about Portugal?
- PitbullRaven, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Ahhhh... Don't you just love Greenpeace environmentalists?!
Just kidding.
Studies have shown that there will be little to no impact. The site was chosen because of it's low density of maritime life forms. Although, granted, there will always be some long-term impact. But as with everything, that is inevitable. Plus, the time frame we are looking at tells us there is much more to be benefited than lost with this new technology. And in a day and age where fossil fuels do most of the damage, all new non polluting technologies should be embraced and welcome. - RoroCo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11Portugal... Herois Do Mar. Kings of living off the sea for thousands of years.
- trippinlikegod, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Wow that's just rude. I'm not sure talking about the closing of schools and maternity wards really shows immaturity. Maybe you should take your own advice on that growing up.
- bitt3n, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10Not if Don Quixote has anything to say about it.
- trippinlikegod, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7How about with the same billions of dollars we use to purchase oil even though we have our own supplies here in this country? Oh wait I forgot how will we hold the world hostage if we don't use up everyone else's oil first.... Damn... Foiled again...
- TypeEE, on 10/30/2007, -1/+8I knew nothing about Portugal but I found his comments very informational. Digg him up, digg you down.
- Chompy, on 10/10/2007, -3/+9The fact that Portugal is spending money on prestige projects while ignoring basic infrastructure *is* on topic.
Oops, replied to the wrong post. Curse this comment system! - grouchyman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6The reason is that no one's figured out a way to make a $10 billion profit on it yet. Once that happens, the whole planet will go green.
Not an ounce of sarcasm here, it's the sad reality. - TheDreadDiggerD, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Well, we could make up a war and divert funds from it.
Oh.... - Jeffmr1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6I don't get it. Ive seen this idea in popular science and the like for years now, and no offense, but Portugal is the first country to ever do it?
- ruiacp, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Don Quixote is from another country. Portugal is not Spain.
- fwc67, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6why aren't we completely using more kinetic energy on the planet? it seems we're being awfully lazy about it
- Wargalas, on 10/27/2007, -1/+6You environmentalist types keep wanting "clean power". Well now you have it, so shut the ***** up.
- trenchy2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Yeah. Less action, more research!
I dunno but it may not take much research to find out that by doing nothing endangers more animals (and I count myself among that number) than a few miles of wave farms. - MattB123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I think this is research. That's why they are starting small.
I think it's a great step in the right direction. - JohnnyRad, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6oh man, now you can hit a slider when you surf. this idea is fantastic!
- bitt3n, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6you must be real fun at parties
- kidcodea, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4hehehe you made us sound like exploiters :D
shame our fishing fleet is reduced to ashes...
fukin EU quotas... - Fallout911, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Great news.
According to Mike Gravel if we build 5 million wind mills in this country (And yes we have the space) we would be able to power the whole country.
How's that for clean energy and independence! - MacEnvy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3The average commercial wind turbine produces about 2 MW at peak. Since the average individual uses about 1 KW at any given time (averaged out between heating, electronic devices, transportation, etc), in theory a single turbine could power up to 2000 people. Considering that they aren't operating at peak most of the time, and storage is usually not easy to do (meaning you'll always want more being put into the grid than being used at any time), I think 60 people per turbine is perfectly acceptable.
- grouchyman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I hear Blackwater's got some spare change lying around.
- caldasdarainha, on 02/20/2008, -0/+3Second wave farm is also on the way!
see: http://digg.com/environment/Portugal_s_Second_wave ... - Bridea, on 10/10/2007, -5/+8Any potential environmental effects?
- Wargalas, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Good try Dr. Evil. :) But you are right, why use up our supplies when we can use up everyone else's and THEN use ours?
- Rustbelt, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I don't get those folks. they're like the nutters in Nantucket who want clean energy but don't want windmills out in the sound. Everyone has to compromise, even if it does mean the Kennedy's will have to see windmills when they look out over the ocean from their summer homes.
- allioupe, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2should put some of these puppies off the coast of indonesia..
- inigomntoya, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5Isn't Spain near Porrtugal? That would make it "unrelated" wouldn't it? Do I fail at Internets?
Or Wait - Have they moved Portugal again? Crap... - grouchyman, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5Cristiano Ronaldo perhaps?
- kabitoSDMF, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Wow. Finally something useful from supernova17 other than movie spam.
- trippinlikegod, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5Yes and if there was you'd most certainly fail.
- PhantomBantam, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Doesn't popular science talk about future tech, too? Also, are you thinking underwater turbines? i think I've been hearing about these too, but I thought they'd be underwater. Perhaps those are different, and what you are thinking about.
- freexe, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Engineering research often takes the form of building small scale projects (like this one), and seeing what breaks and how much it costs to fix/prevent.
This is a great project that will hopefully provide lots of valuable data for future wave projects. - flaare, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I'm sad people are reading your comment and believing you. 800 high-schools? Are you mad? While the number is higher, the only schools that closed down or will close are remote primary schools with less than 10 students. Portugal surely as a lot of problems, but the mindless bashing is just stupid and certainly doesn't help. Lets not try to develop our country further with new infrastructures that put us on level with the rest of Europe, no, we must stay still and save some monies!!1 And about the maternity wards, they closed about 16, because apparently they lacked minimum safety levels.
Sure we have a lot of problems, but we also have many things to feel good about our country. - blatantninja, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The funny thing is that those windmills the the Kennedy's were so worried about would have been barely visible from the beach.
- freexe, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Lots of windmills isn't the answer. Wind produces larges peaks and troughs throughout the day whether there is demand for that power or not. You need capacitance to counter that random power generation. In Denmark they export excess power to Sweden (who have lots of hydro that acts as capacitance).
Why wind power works in Denmark:
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/8/31/194053/9 ...
You need a good portfolio of power generation to deal with the load and how people use that power (the more sustainable the better). For example, having all solar is no good when it's night time or cloudy. - ruiacp, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Learn geography please. You are talking about the wrong country :8
- kidcodea, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1really? well u would have seen this in multiple RTP pieces for at least a year now...
- EarlR, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That's because it's easy to talk about doing this kind of stuff but damn difficult to do in practice. You need to locate wave power plants where there is a lot of wave energy (so you get a reasonable power flow when there is not too much wave energy) but it needs to be strong enough to survive when a big storm comes in. Needs serious engineering to manage both. Pelamis has been in development for decades.
Incidentally they are designed to get most energy from the ocean swell (which is available 365 days a year) and not from local waves (which vary from hour to hour). - biruta, on 04/09/2009, -0/+1Algarve: full of British people :-)
- silvercoast, on 01/31/2008, -0/+1I've seen this being built in Peniche and the cylinders are HUGE much bigger than I ever expected
- phaertes, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"www.finavera.com Their prototype has been in the water off the coast of Oregon for a month now."
- Icetype, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I agree. Probably zeromancer just hasn't SEEN a commercial wind turbine. They're huge. From miles away they look huge. There's an entire control room up there. There are quite a few in the countryside in Japan.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2ah eu sou portugues!
- djAnakin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I commend the effort, but how is anyone able to justify the damage it will do to the sea, and sea life? IMO wind farms would be a better choice. But, what do I know?
- Azm0dAn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'm portuguese and I have to come to Digg to find this out... It amazes me aswell! :)
- PhantomBantam, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Why was bridea dugg down? It's a good question.
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