" RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS" - Summary of the Project

The Project organizer, patentee

Dr. Alexander N. Rusetsky, Moscow, tel. (495) 124-9020; 8-903-192-65-80

E-mail: swes-alex@mtu-net.ru

http://ocean-power.narod.ru/index.html

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am the organizer of an extensive International Project in the field of Power Mechanical Engineering with prospect of a turnover of hundreds millions dollars. We are looking for business partners and investors.

The draft name of the project - " RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS". The project is meant for large-scale use in industrial and consumer power industry of non-polluting and powerful energy source - sea waves (alongside with wind power and sunlight) - with the help of patented floating or coastal float wave power installations with energy stores, and desalination stations. Power installations we are offering are first of all intended for the production of the Electric Power and / or for Sea Water Desalination. Moreover, the given installations can be applied for driving any mechanisms demanding energy of a rotating shaft. The above product is totally new at the world market.

The markets for this product are all coastal states, which are the majority. It should be mentioned that coastal zones are most densely populated and having growing demands for energy and fresh water.

At present, the project is rather advanced: there exist a Russian patent, the International Application in accordance with PCT is submitted; little demonstrational model and the basic part of a pilot pre-series a sample of the converter which constitute a basic unit of power installations have been fabricated and tested; advertising "videoclips" in the form of computer animated cartoons have been made and a lot of drawings and sketches of wave power installations have been elaborated; several kinds of base models with other types of converters, equipped with additional wind power installations of the Project authors design have been developed (they are being patented now). About 20 000 USD have been spent for these steps to promote the Project as a start capital.

In comparison with technologies offered by competitors in the given area, namely a number of companies in Japan and in some European countries, installations offered by the author of the Project are several times less expensive (considering 1 kW of installation capacity). Some competitors state that they are nearing the commercialization stage, but in my opinion, their technology is not highly promising and they still are at the experimentation stage.

It should be noted that almost all competitors are using for transformation of energy of sea waves a method of oscillating water columns whose efficiency is rather low, as energy of waves is converted into the energy of 1-20% compressed air, but this way is totally inefficient and causes considerable energy losses. In fact, it is an air wind power installation, in which an air stream rotating the turbine, is formed by a slight pressure difference due to periodic displacement of air from reservoir with an opening below, such as a cap or a bell. The range of applications of the given method is very limited and can be used only for large ocean waves of swells of the height of over 2-3 meters, or large coastal waves of surf. The estimates and data on the relationship of output capacity of an installation to the height of waves and the installation size, on the basis of this method, have not been found.

In contrast to competitors, the offered technology allows to avoid useless losses of energy. Moreover, the author has deduced a rather simple formula allowing to estimate the output capacity depending on the waves height before the construction of the installation.

The offered patented technical solution allows to transform practically all wave energy - both potential and kinetic directly into useful work with the help of wave motion converter (with movable floats and cinematic communications) at practically any height and type of waves (both waves of a swell, and wind waves of the height above 0,3 m and more, and also waves of a surf). Potential energy of waves is used due to application of floats on a lever suspension bracket (in particular case), and kinetic due to plates established on floats and receiving hydrodynamic pressure of a running wave.

The invention idea is very simple: non-synchronous chaotically dispersed in time and on sea water surface impulses of forces are gathered that are acting on a great number of movable floats mounted on a support (either floating or ground based). With the help of flexible cinematic ties these impulses are transformed into impulses of momentum of force effecting a shaft. Due to their permanent non-synchronous chaotic action, these impulses cause the rotation of the shaft, which is made one-direction with the help of one-way clutches. The shaft rotation is smothered with the help of a flywheel.

High efficiency allows to considerably lower material consumption of the installation considering 1 kW of output capacity and therefore, to lower its cost price. An important feature is that the body weight of a movable float is counterbalanced by loads, and thus, wave energy is not spent for raising floats which are rather heavy due to durability requirements, and is almost entirely transformed to useful work.

The technology also comprises the "know-how" allowing to practically eliminate friction loss during reverse motion in one-way clutchs of a mechanical converter. The technological level of complexity of the last is low and is approximately at the level of technical complexity of a bicycle that provides high reliability and durability of offered devices, as well as low cost of assembly, maintenance and repair. What is even more attractive is the fact that in comparison with competitors, it is possible to place both industrial and dwelling premises, including country houses, hotels and industrial shops, as well as helicopter and plane sites, on frames of big-sized floating platforms.

The mechanical converter transforms energy of waves to energy of low-speed rotating shaft with torque of 104-106 *, rotating with speed of 1-10 rot. /s. It is possible to use such enormous torque for rotating standard electric generators through raising transfer mechanisms, as well as directly for a drive, such as, for example, stone-crushers, or a great variety of other devices demanding a drive from a rotating shaft.

For usually unstable natural energy sources the problem of prime importance is accumulation, storage of energy. Generally, for these purposes storage batteries are used. For wave power installations we recommend accumulation of energy both in accumulators and in gyroscopic stores, or by using energy for some industrial production in its turn providing energy under certain conditions.

Nowadays, hydrogen made through electrolysis is considered a most promising such product. For electrolysis it is possible to directly use unstable chaotically fluctuating in time capacity of electric current. That is to say that it is enough to connect an electric generator to an output shaft of wave power installation and to feed straightened voltage directly to an electrolysis device. The hydrogen power industry is today intensively developed, for example, by such automobile giants as BMW, Mercedes and Volvo, thus making the use of wave power installations for large-scale production of hydrogen most promising.

The problem of durability of a power installation frame has been thoroughly elaborated so that the platform could withstand an impact of any storm and be unsinkable (probably, even during bombing). It is achieved taking into consideration the following requirements when constructing a frame:

  1. A three-dimensional, volumetric force design of a rectangular structure with obligatory presence of diagonal power force elements;
  2. Elements of a frame are made serially of steel tubes, channels and angle bar of the necessary section; connection of elements - with the help of stop units and platforms with connection by large bolts and screws; thus the frame is made of prefabricated elements and an installation cans easily be mounted at the operation site by a team of several assemblers.
  3. The frame is made transparent for free passage of waves and wind thus minimizing storm loading on a frame, which will be hundreds times less than, for example, on ships cases;
  4. Buoyancy is provided due to application of pontoons, for example, in the form of steel tubes of necessary diameters tightly closed from end faces and filled for reliability with foam plastic (or foamy polyurethane, but it is more expensive); tubes are located both horizontally and vertically at the necessary depth that will allow to adjust the position of a waterline;
  5. The horizontal sizes of a frame are should not exceed its height more than 8-15 times.

The values of wave loading on units of a suspension bracket of floats and elements of a frame for the calculation of their durability are easily estimated considering sizes and form of the given units and well-known Arhimed and hydrodynamics laws.

Why a large installation is more effective in comparison with a small one?

It is possible to explain it as follows: capacity is proportional to the total area occupied by all floats on a water surface, and proportional to a square of wave height. Let us consider two installations of identical area. The first is designed for the maximal height of waves of 2 m (for the Azov sea, for example), and the second for the height of waves of 6 m, i.e. 3 times higher (for example, for the Mediterranean sea). The height of floats, a frame and other elements, and accordingly, material consumption and the cost of manufacturing of the second installation will be approximately 3 times higher than the cost of the first one. Its maximal capacity at certain height of waves will be not 3, but 9 times higher than of the first.

Hence, and cost of one watt of the maximal installation capacity will be 3 times lower than of the first one.

Thus, profitability and times of repayment directly depend on specific height of waves in possible operation areas. For example, the same installation can pay back in 1,5-2 years of operation at the Black sea, and at the Pacific coast of Japan, Australia, at Southern coast of Africa or in the Atlantic ocean the same installation can be paid back in 2-3 months. And in regions where sea roughness is usually too weak, wave installations will not be paid back at all. The same is true concerning wind and solar power installations, which will never be paid back in the absence of wind or sunlight, accordingly.

Therefore, with the purpose of cost reduction and acceleration of self-repayment of installations, for different areas it is necessary to make the installations designed for the maximal average height of waves in these areas.

For the greater commercial attractiveness the first experimental installation should be tested in areas with intensive sea roughness to show its efficiency and short repayment period.

Stages of project development:

I. Patenting base technology on the basis of the submitted International Application in accordance with PCT. Patenting will allow to monopolize for 18 years the given business in the countries, where the use of offered power installations will give the best commercial effect. It is a number of European countries (the Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Cyprus, Norway), and also India, the Republic of South Africa and Australia.

The admitted by PCT rules term of 31 month from the date of a priority under the given Application during which it is possible to proceed to the National Phase of patenting, expires December, 31, 2001. Therefore it is necessary to issue and submit Applications for proceeding to the National Phase of patenting till December 15-20, 2001.

This stage will demand urgent payment of services of patent attorneys in the elected countries, and also payments of the appropriate State Taxes, in all some 15 - 25 thousand dollars for all specified countries.

II. Manufacturing of large, commercially attractive pilot experimental sample of a base model of float wave power installation with output capacity of 200-600 kW for waves with height of 1-2 m (but capable to withstand storm loading of waves of any height). The design of the given first large installation should include the possibilities for regulation (adjustment) of some parameters within wide limits, during field tests, with the purpose of defining optimum parameters.

The activities at this stage, for example, under the contract, will be undertaken by the organizer of the project and the author of some inventions, D-r A.N.Rusetsky' (Physical and Mathematical Sciences) who is registered as an entrepreneur and has the big 25-years practical experience in experimental physics and in construction of various metal structures as an engineer and developer and a welder - assembler, as well as contacts and experience in production. He has successfully and in time executed considerable work under contracts with a number of Moscow organizations.

The given stage comprises the following steps:

a) Depending on the amount of money offered by the investor, final engineering calculation of the biggest installation capacity possible, the sizes and safety factor of a wave power installation will be made, and its design will be determined. The given stage will demand 3-4 weeks and 2 - 4 thousand dollars for payment of services of involved experts.

It is desirable the sizes of the frame of floating variant of installation to make not less than 30x30 m with the height not less than 5-6 m. The frame of such installation will contain, for example, under-water pontoons in the form of 5-7 tubes with diameter 1-1.2 m, which will be arranged parallel to each other with the distance between them 5-6 m. Such design will prevent the installation swing at heavy sea. The total weight of such installation with 18-24 floats with sizes 3x2x1.5 m will be 100-200 t.

b) 5-8 months rent of open areas at any factory in Moscow of the size of approximately 5040 meters for the future assembly of a power installation frame, as well as of a floor space about 200-300 sq. meters in some warm premises for metal and welding works, and also works against corrosion and coloration. Turning processing of shaft and basic units, manufacturing of details of fastening, etc, are required also, therefore, it would be more convenient to rent industrial areas at a factory having large lathes allowing processing of details of diameter up to 1-1,5 m. There exist such factories in Moscow and we have established contacts with them.

This step will demand about 15 - 20 thousand dollars.

c) Purchase of materials and equipment - metal sheet, steel tubes for manufacturing pontoons and force elements of a frame, foam plastics and the device for filling of cavities of pontoons and floats with it, steel and kapron cables, bearings and shafts of railway cars, generators and storage batteries, voltage converters.

To purchase of materials and details and units the sum of 80 - 300 thousand dollars is required, depending on the investor possibilities. It should be noted that a larger and, hence, more expensive power installations should be commercially much more attractive both as to output capacity and design, as well as to the ratio " price / maximal output capacity ".

d) The manufacturing of details and units, as well as assembly and adjustment of installation at the rented territory will demand 100 - 200 thousand dollars.

e) Railway transportation of manufactured units and details to the seacoast, for example, the Black sea, to Anapa or Novorossisk, will demand 3-6 thousand dollars.

f) The installation assembly on a coastal shelf within 1-2 weeks, security services and maintenance (4-8 persons) for the period of 2-4 months of tests and optimization of parameters, and also the coordination of activities with local authorities will demand 5-10 thousand dollars.

g) Photo- and video survey and advertising leaflets and videoclips will require about 3 000 USD or more.

In total: the realization of the given stage requires 208-550 thousand USD.

III. After tests of the first pilot wave power installation in real sea conditions is planned to begin active promotion of the given product at the world market. First of all we plan to place information on the project in catalogues of Chambers of Commerce and Industries in the countries where operation of the given installations will give the greatest economic benefit. For example, in the Indo-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industries have already shown interest to these power installations and under the condition that installations output parameters will correspond to these declared by the Project author, the chief representative has promised to promote the reception of the state order of India for hundreds of such installations. A protocol of intentions has been signed.

It is planned to offer the given non-polluting and effective power installations to the ministries and departments of energy of various countries with the purpose of receiving state orders. Despite the presumptuous character of these statements, the reasons given below allow to look with optimism at reception of state orders:

Arguments in favour of the possibility of high demand for the offered product :

At present, all over the world in the areas removed from electric systems, solar batteries and wind power installations are widely used both in daily life and in production. Cost of one kW of output capacity (the so-called " installation capacity ") of solar batteries will cost for the buyer 4000 - 10 000 USD, and the buyer of a wind power station will pay 700 - 1500 USD for one kW of output capacity.

Sea Wave Power Installations offered by the author will allow the buyer of these installations to receive one kW of output capacity at the price from 50 to 300 USD under the condition of its serial production. It is much cheaper than the prices of the Japanese and British competitors who in the authors opinion, have come into an impasse with their method of oscillating water column. I have not yet found a word about their calculations of output capacity depending on height of waves and cost of one kW produced by these installations.

Besides as against competitive, power installations offered by the author allow to use with benefit the area of a platform itself for accommodation on it not only industrial and residential buildings, but in addition also wind power plants of authors design (the appropriate patent will be soon), and also standard solar batteries. And all this can be created in the most densety populated and attractive to life of people coastal areas (sea coastal resorts etc.).

The next steps of the project development:

After manufacturing and tests of a pre-production pilot model the further promotion of the project will consist in the organization of a serial production of offered power installations of various capacity, purpose and design. This stage may be started after receiving of at least several first orders for the given installations.

Successful testing of a pilot model and effective advertising campaign can become a key factor for getting additional investments. A number of venture funds and investment companies have already shown their interest to the Project, who ask to address them after testing and at the second stage of financing for a large-scale expansion of production. A big international consortium may be set up as a further step.

Repayment period of these installations due to the cost of the useful electric energy produced - from several months to 1-2 years, depending on a region of operation and the local prices for the electric power.

The sources of profit? We can get a profit from sales of licenses, from sales of installations and from sales of product made with the help of the given installations electric power, desalinated water, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium carbide, the sale of mechanical energy accumulated in gyroscopes, stone road-metal, a crumb from ground tyre-covers, etc. In addition, alongside with desalination, seawater salt extraction on an industrial scale can be also rather promising.

It should be noted that sea wave energy industry in the world has not yet achieved the industrial level and is at an initial stage. That is why it is difficult to find experts capable of making advanced and detailed analysis of the inventions and the Project offered by the Project author, which considerably impedes the search for investments.

Yours faithfully,

the Project organizer, patentee

Dr. Alexander N. Rusetsky, Moscow, tel. (495) 124-9020; 8-903-192-65-80

E-mail: ocean-power@yandex.ru

 



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