Energy from the Ocean

The issue of moving away from fossil fuels to cleaner, sustainable renewable energy is being tackled worldwide.  In the European Union alone, member states as a whole have agreed to raising their share of energy consumption from renewable resources to 20% by 2020.  (The 2020 Climate & Energy Package). As a result of the directives, the search for new methods of generating reliable and inexpensive renewable energy continues with a raft of new ideas purporting to be an ideal solution for capturing energy from wind power and tides. However, despite the technical capabilities and potential output of these renewable energy devices, they have a common problem; they do not have an efficient underwater mooring solution for their device. Whilst more and more offshore wind farms are being built, they, and other marine engineering projects, currently rely on a range of anchoring systems such as pile anchors, helical screws, drag anchors, screw anchors and mushroom anchors, all of which have their own particular advantages and disadvantages.  Drag anchors and mushroom anchors can result in destruction of the seabed and conventional pile, screw or helical anchors are designed to be loaded vertically.  If a structure requires a shaft to be positioned at an angle, expensive, specialist machinery must be used. The Greenstick innovation can offer a brand new solution to this problem and has the added benefit of being a ‘green’ solution.  The Greenstick comprises a long screw shaft (or suction shaft) for securing to the seabed, a multi- axis joint which allows the upper shaft to rotate through 360° and to be positioned up to 90° from vertical.  The upper shaft acts as a locking sleeve which, when in the locked position, covers the joint and locks the upper and lower shaft together, thereby allowing the device to be deployed vertically and secured to the seabed.  Once the Greenstick is securely in place, the upper shaft can be unlocked by various methods such as manually, electronically or hydraulically, all of which are covered in the patent, and then set to the required angle to support the structure.  The Greenstick is also, by virtue of its simplistic design, removable and reusable and has the potential to be used not only in the offshore energy industry but in other types of marine engineering such as dredging, flood defence and harbour construction. Since Governments have committed to renewable energy targets, the industry can only continue to grow and Greenstick could offer a much needed green mooring solution for the future.