A MonthlyNewsletterofDepartment of Electrical Engineering
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sources,ParliamentaryAffairs&Excis
e)
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B.C.Y.R.C.
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(Treasurer,B.C.Y.R.C)
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(Admin.Officer,B.C.Y.R.C.)
Dr.D.P.Singh
(Principal,K.D.K.C.E.)
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(Vice-Principal,K.D.K.C.E.)
Dr.G.H.Agrawal
(Dean,Academic)
(Dean,StudentsDevelopmentCell)
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(HOD,ElectricalEngineering)
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( Faculty,Incharge EESA)
EditorialBench
Mrs. V.B. Hardas
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Ms.Geraldin Matthew
(Co- incharge)
Students’representatives
Shubham kadu
( Editor)
Pawan chauhan
( Co-Editor)
11
NOVEMBER2014
Wave power’s uncertain future!
Buried in wave power device
company oceanpower technologies’
latest quarterly report and press
release is a seemingly backward
move: one major project in
Australia has been terminated,
while another signature project in
Oregon is in the process of
“winding down”. A company
determined to build the commercialscale wave power facilities is
apparently not interested, at least at
the present moment, in the building
commercial-scale wave power
facilities. Instead, OPT will focus
their efforts on “next generation
design”, an idea that experts say is
probably the only way to go at the
moment.
“It seems quite reasonable to
me for the MHK (marine and
hydrokinetic) companies to use
existing funds to seek better
performance, improved reliability,
and lower cost”, says Bob Thresher,
a research fellow at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory. He
pointed out that with natural gas
prices still son low, fighting for
power purchase agreement and
maintaining profitability is hard for
all renewable energy sources, and
especially for one with more
immature technology.
[[For the near term, wave power
companies should focus on
improving their technology with
existing funds and wait for the
demand for low carbon energy
sources to grow..]]
Wave power's potential is
undeniable, but progress toward
deployment has been slow. In
fact, with a temporary exception
off the coast of Portugal in 2008
and 2009, there have been
essentially no large-scale wave
power facilities. There are testing
facilities where companies plug in
devices and run them, and smaller
devices in the water, but an actual
wave farm producing megawatts
of grid-connected power has yet
to surface. OPT's decisions this
year to scale back its plans—a
European deployment by the
company was also pushed back
toward 2015—fits right in with an
industry struggling to get off the
ground.
Earlier
this
summer,
Bloomberg New Energy Finance
predicted only 21 megawatts of
wave power (the output of about
three of the big new offshore
wind turbines deploying in
Europe these days) will be in the
water by the end of the decade, a
72 percent drop from previous
estimates. The field is littered
with floundering or
failed companies, such as Wave
Bob. As I'vereported elsewhere,
some think the field needs big
players like GE,Siemens, and others
to really dive in before any progress
can be made;there needs to be a
potential to lose money at first,
which smaller companies can't
handle.
George Hagerman, a senior research
associate at the Virginia Tech
AdvancedResearch Institute who
has participated in Department of
Energy assessments of wave power,
points out thatdeveloping the
technology and developing the
commercial-scale project involve
entirely different sets of skills.
Because wave energy technology is
still in its infancy, experienced
project developers who have those
skills are reluctant to incur project
financingobligations... there is so
much uncertainty as to whether or
not thetechnology will last the book
life of the project [20-30 years] and
whatthe maintenance and repair
costs will be to keep the technology
operatingat its year-one efficiency
over that entire period.
He adds that with offshore wind in
Europe, the maturity of the
technology and the decades of
experience yields a field where one
set of companiesbuild the turbines,
and a totally other set of
companies—big utilities and power
producers—are the ones financing
and developing the projects.
OPT's move to focus on improving
the tech rather than jumping in the
water is thus likely a smart one.
Unlike solar and wind power, there
is not one design (nor even a few
designs) universallyagreed to be the
bestpathforward.
ISSUE - 11
Designs differ dramatically, and it remains
unclear which willeventually provide the
best balance of cost, efficiency, and power
production. OPT uses a buoy-like design,
where the motion of the waves moves the
device up and down on a piston; the
company had been deemed among the
frontrunners to get big projects in the
water, along with Pelagic andit's snakelike attenuator design.
Thresher, of NREL, points out that natural
gas costs are almost certain to rise in the
future, which would help level the playing
field for wave power. That playing field
would look even better if the design wars
were a bit more settled—again suggesting
OPT's move is a reasonable one. "When
MHK technology starts to look more
promising with improved machines, they
should be able to compete more
effectively," Thresher says. "For the near
term, it seems quite reasonable to me for
themto focus on improving their
technology with existing funds and wait
for the demand for low carbon energy
sources to grow."
UMANG – NOV 14
- Ankit Chilkalwar
(5th sem, electrical)
PAGE - 2
The story of the electricity (Part 4)
Dr. Gilbert, the Royal Physician
Centuries passed by and though many
philosophers after Thales pondered over
this subject of magnetism, no
significant discovery relating to
magnetism was made till the time of Sir
William Gilbert (1544-1603), personal
physician of Queen Elizabeth I. In 1600
A.D. he published 'De Magnete' (about
Magnets), in whichhe recorded the
results of his experiments of 17 years
and his theories about magnetism.
Dr. Gilbert had heard of Magnus and
Thales when he was young and was so
impressed by their discoveries that he
decided to do his own research on the
subject.
He found that not only amber but also
such things as sulphur, glass and wax
became magnetic by friction and
attracted other materials. He also
noticed that there were many things
which, when rubbed, would not acquire
any magnetic property. It was he who
first observed the characteristic
difference between thenatural magnetic
property of loadstone and the induced
magnetism of amber. Dr. Gilbert gave
the magnetic property of amber the
name of 'electricity'. In Greek amber is
called'elektron'.
Dr. Gilbert experimented with various
objects and classified them according to
their properties. He prepared a list of
materials that would become electrified
by friction and of those that would not.
He drew up another list of materials
whose electric properties weremore
powerful than those of others.
10 classify objects according to their
induced power of attraction,
ISSUE – 11
he devised an instrument called the
'electroscope'. It was a very simple
apparatus, with a dry piece of straw
hung in front. Dr. Gilbert would rub
different objects with fur or linen, hold
them one after another before this straw
and carefully note down the extent each
attracted the straw. He could not
ascertain why and how an object
acquired the power of attraction by
friction. But the results of his
researches paved the way to many
scientific discoveries.
When Dr. Gilbert wrote his book, he
did not imagine that he would raise a
controversy that would last over
generations to come. Nor that he would
one day be hailed as the father of the
science of electricity.
Gradually Dr. Gilbert's book came to
be known to most European scientists.
To many of them the theories
propounded by the ancient Greek
philosophers and scientists were the
last word and they were unwilling to
accept new ideas. Yet some were
fascinated by the author's scientific
vision. A few even began their
researches along Dr. Gilbert's line, but
no significant advancement was made
in this field during the next 60 years.
UMANG – NOV 14
PAGE - 3
Wit and wisdom
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you
somethingelse is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.
Anon
There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite
passion oflife.
Federico Fellini
Work as though you would live forever, and live as though you would
dietoday.
Og Mandino
What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can
achieve.
Napoleon Hill
ISSUE - 11
UMANG – NOV14
PAGE - 4