Giant Kelp Helps to Discover New Wave-Power Technology
Seaweed such as Wakame, Hijiki, and kelp, which is customarily seen as part of our diet, adheres itself to the seafloor and rocks from where it spreads its “leave(s)” to perform photosynthesis. Seaweed has characteristics that make it capable of surviving in fast, rough currents. One seaweed, the giant kelp, is found in Monterey Bay, California and in the Tasmanian sea in Australia; it grows several tens of centimeters a day, eventually growing to be anywhere from several tens of meters up to 100m long. The plants look like forests in the sea. The base of each leaf (leaf-like structured blade) of the plants has many small gas-filled bladders that support the plant and keep it from lying down on the seafloor. Additionally, these bladders allow the plant to easily float its leaves, and spread them out widely along the ocean currents, exposing them to a lot of sun light for photosynthesis.
- Resouce/Energy/Information Collection & Storage:
- Light collecting、Uses light energy
- Transfer/Dispose/Circulate:
- Floating
- Form/Organization/System:
- Expansion
BioPower Systems in Australia was inspired by the movement of the seaweed swaying in the sea and used it to develop their unique wave power device called the “bioWAVETM.” This device is 25m tall and generates electricity by using its array of “buoyant floats” that sway in tune with the ocean currents, causing the turbines near the bottom to spin, generating electricity. The turbines of this device are not like large propeller-type wind turbines; instead they are inside the device, and pivot from the bottom section of the device, which keeps it from being damaged by collisions with surrounding marine life. In addition, when the devices are affected by rough waves under adverse weather conditions, the buoyant floats automatically lie sideways to be parallel to the surface of the seafloor in order to prevent them from breaking due to the impact of excessive external force.
- Wave-power systems (the “bioWAVE TM.”)
Due to rising oil prices and increasing social awareness of environmental issues, wave and wind power have increasingly become the focus of attention as sources of renewable energy. This new wave power technology, such as the “bioWAVE TM,” is very suitable and appropriate for use in a place like Japan, which is surrounded by the sea. Just as you now see the forests of giant kelp in the Gulf of California, you might also see the “forests of bioWAVE TM” in the shallow sea around Japan in the future.
- Giant kelp.
Photo by Annie Crawley
From the Amazing Nature Database. 
- Image of the bioWAVE TM
From the Amazing Nature Database.
