Twenty years after being killed off in a closed-door meeting of the British government, Salter’s Duck – a super efficient wave generator developed in Scotland – continues to tempt green energy enthusiasts as another possible alternative to oil, coal, and nuclear energy.

Developed by Prof. Stephen Salter at the University of Edinburgh during the 1970s, the Duck is a giant egg-shaped oscillator tethered to the ocean floor. As the float rides each incoming wave, the motion of the swell compresses air through the Duck driving turbines which create electricity. Arranged along Britain’s famously tempestuous coastline, Salter’s Ducks would create thousands of pollution-free kilowatts. In 1985, the future looked bright as the first pilot Duck bobbed in the water off Norway.

But then, after a secret report of Britain’s Advisory Council on Research and Development, all funding was pulled from the project. Only in 1990 did the truth emerge: the nuclear lobby and the British government, afraid of losing big money contracts, had doctored various reports to make wave energy seem more expensive and less reliable than it actually was.

Green energy is nothing to fear; someday soon, Salter’s Duck will quietly float once again.

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This entry was posted by Jeffrey Goodman on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 10:19 am and is filed under Environment, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.