A Submission from
Andrew H Mackay
Greenheat Systems Limited
Causewayside
TAIN
IV19 1NE
Tel ++44(0)1862 892777
Mobile ++44(0)7720 141 332
Combined Wave and Tidal Stream (November
2008)
The Gentec WATS System will generate all
of Scotland's electricity from a combination of wind and tidal
stream energy. The electricity generated can be base load, load
following or peak shaving.
About 98% of the kinetic energy captured
is from wave power using mobile Combined Harvester Vessels (CHVs).
The remaining 2% will come from tidal stream or estuarine river
flows in the unlikely event of flat calm prevailing in the North
Atlantic for several days at a time.
The captains of these fully crewed steam
driven vessels will seek out the largest waves in the North Atlantic
or the North Sea. The kinetic energy contained in the waves is
converted to heat and stored as green heat in large thermal accumulators
on board these vessels. When these thermal accumulators are fully
'charged up with heat', the CHVs simply head for port to discharge
their valuable cargoes of heat at their bespoke berths.
The heat is transmitted using simple proven
heat exchanging techniques to the generating hub's much larger
thermal accumulator. The use of expensive and vulnerable sub-sea
cables to bring renewable energy ashore is no longer necessary.
(Indeed, the Lewis to Denny interconnector is no longer required
because the energy can be transmitted to the Central Belt directly
as heat - by sea.)
The onshore hub power station generates
synchronous base load, load following or peak shaving electricity
continuously using standard off-the-shelf steam turbines irrespective
of the sea state and tides. The shore side power station is designed
to operate for five to seven days at full capacity with any 'topping
up' from the CHVs.
Thermal power stations consist of two main
elements; the 'heat source' and steam turbines. The heat source
either involves burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas
or by creating a controlled thermo-nuclear explosion by splitting
the atom (nuclear fission).
Most people understands that burning coal
in coal fired power stations creates heat to raise steam for their
steam turbines but fewer understand that nuclear fission is just
another way of supplying heat to raise steam for nuclear power
stations' steam turbines.
Gentec WATS simply provides another heat
source from the infinite power of the waves and tidal streams.
In the Spring 2009, the Scottish Government
will be debating the proposal to build a huge coal fired power
station, with some carbon sequestration, at Hunterston on the
North Ayrshire coast - close to the Hunterston B nuclear power
station.
The basic plan is to import the coal via
the deep water berths at Hunterston to provide part of the 'energy
mix' suggested by the 'energy experts' employed by the Scottish
Government who are either already in the pay of the renewable
energy industry or would like to be in the future.
These self-proclaimed 'experts' are responsible
for holding back all other innovative ideas such as my Gentec
venturi invention dating back five or six years. This tidal stream
device, now superseded by Gentec WATS, would have provide base
load or peak shaving electricity by storing all the power under
the power curve as heat during Spring tides, carrying some it
forward into the Neap tides to give continuity of supply at full
rated power across each and every lunar month.
Unfortunately, Alan Owen, so-called renewables'
expert, at RGU, was asked to 'peer review' the idea and provide
an 'independent' report. He then, behind my back, made several
ludicrous and erroneous assumptions, because he did not want to
understand it, and sent the report off to Highlands and Islands
Enterprise without giving me a chance to read it. This was sneaky
and reprehensible act of betrayal by somebody who was not my 'peer'
in any case, but typical of academic 'experts' in this field,
in my opinion.
HIE, on the basis of Alan Owen's flawed
appraisal, withdrew offers of funding a prototype. (I can supply
a copy of his academic 'hatchet job' on my invention on request
- I may even publish on this website if there is sufficient demand.)
In the early 70s, the western world was
held to ransom because of shortages of oil - and the concept of
alternative forms of energy was born. Now, 35 years later, despite
installing thousands of MW of wind turbines, on the say-so of
'experts' we have come back full circle to proposals for building
power stations fuelled by another fossil fuel - coal!
If this crackpot idea gets the go ahead,
as undoubtably it will, because the same 'experts', that gave
us intermittent wind and marine turbines, need secure base load
electricity to make their puny not-fit-for-purpose renewable energy
devices work in the first place. Our Ministers seem to be incapable
of seeing just how ludicrous the concept of building brand new
coal fired power stations is, when you can get infinite supplies
of renewable heat from waves and tides instead.
The concept of shipping in heat in the
form of unburnt coal, to Hunterston, to raise steam in a proposed
coal fired power station is well understood, yet shipping in wave
and tidal renewable heat, as heat, to the same berths at Hunterston
is beyond comprehension of most.
This renewable heat source will be used
to run the existing 1288MW rated generators already operating
at Hunterston B. Only the nuclear heat source needs to be decommissioned
over time.
This proposal will be a lot cheaper than
developing existing renewables further because no sub-sea cables
are required and the heat can be shipped into other existing power
stations like Longannet, Cockenzie and Torness where existing
generating plant can be used as coal and nuclear heat sources
are phased out over the next five to ten years.
This proposal has been put to all the Scottish
Government Ministers and, so far, there has been no response -
presumably they too busy to see that importing coal @ £300
per tonne at today's prices will result in energy poverty for
millions of Scots for many generations to come.
The one-off cost of converting the 1288MW
Hunterston B nuclear power station into a 100% renewable energy
power station capable of generating 11.3TWh of pure synchronous
green electricity is put at £400 million. This figure includes
the construction of the bespoke berth and two steam driven CHVs.
The primary 'fuel' used to run the converted power station and
operate the CHVs is from waves and tidal stream which are free
of charge at the point of capture so carbon emissions can be put
at zero.
A modern supercritical 1288MW coal plant,
with the ability to sequestrate about a fifth of the carbon emitted,
on the other hand, will cost upwards of £1,000 million to
build. The annual cost of 5.47million tonnes of coal, assuming
it remains at £300 per tonne, is a staggering £1.6
billion in fiscal terms. The cost to the planet in terms of CO2 emissions,
assuming the carbon sequestration works, will be £8.3million
tonnes.
The additional cost of generating unit
of electricity (1kWh) from this new generation of coal fired power
stations, based on the wholesale purchase price of the coal being
£300/tonne is 15 pence. This cost price may well quadruple
when marine renewables are added in to the 'energy mix' as currently
proposed.
If Gentec WATS was rolled out across Scotland
so that Cockenzie (1200MW), Longannet (2400MW) and Torness (1200MW)
were modified simultaneously with Hunterston B in a similar way
then Scotland could generate 53.3TWh of very cheap green electricity
annually for a capital outlay of under £2 billion. This
figure, 53.3TWh, represents around 1/8 of the electricity consumed
in the UK annually and will make fuel poverty a thing of the past.
We are at crossroads and if we go down
the experts' way we will consign future generations to higher
and higher energy bills - until the coal runs out! Then what?
With no oil, no gas and no coal to raise steam our grand children
will be forced to use waves and tidal stream for renewable heat
because there is no fossil fuels left to burn!
Question; What country would knowingly
spend £billions on a finite resource, coal, when an infinite
free resource lies a few miles off-shore?
Answer; Scotland, because it is governed
by politicians who leave all that 'technical stuff' to self-proclaimed
experts and believe everything they say.
It is this lazy attitude adopted by energy
ministers worldwide that allows these self-serving experts say
what they think their minister want to hear - i.e. More and bigger
wind turbines.
This is the crass solution that the Scottish
Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) has come up with.
The major energy report concluded that a three-fold increase in
the number of on-shore turbines, costing £3 billion,(£1billionmore
than impementingGentec WATS) is needed if Scotland is to meet
its energy targets. It predicts that by 2020, more than 2,000
new turbines will be required to meet the target of providing
50 per cent of electricity from clean, green, renewable sources.
Sadly, the report does not distinguish
between random and intermittent bursts of electricity and secure
base load electricity that Gentec WATS will supply. In simple
non-technical language, the electricity from conventional wind
and marine turbines is the WRONG kind of electricity demanded
by modern society; the electricity that will flow from a Gentec
WATS thermal power station is the RIGHT kind of electricity.
Using Gentec WATS, all of Scotland's secure
electricity from clean, green, renewable energy sources will generated
by 2015 - if we start now implementing this idea now!
A by-product from the generating process
can be desalinated water. Over 10 billion tonnes of pure sterile
potable water can be injected straight into the water main. Surplus
water can be sold to our southern neighbours and Europe.
Current Status
The patent pending invention described
above is available under a provisional six month non-exclusive
licence for Scottish waters only on a 'first come, first served'
basis. The licensee must 'earn' the rights to an exclusive 10
year licence by demonstrating that real progress has been made
during the initial six month period. Failure to meet the predetermined
goals means that a six month non-exclusive licence will pass to
the next company or syndicate on the wait list.
Licences for other parts of the world are
available on request.
Parties wishing to express and interest
should do so by email at the following address:
All truth passes through
three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Tel
++44(0)1862 892777 Mob. ++44(0)7720 141 332
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