A Nature-Inspired Underwater Power Generator that Looks Like Sharks

Following nature’s innate wisdom when planning a design seems like a really smart idea. I love bio-mimicry, and this is just about the coolest thing I’ve seen. Underwater generators that disturb sea life as little as possible and look this awesome? Love it.

Gizmodo has it:

It never hurts to take cues from nature when designing technology, and that’s just what BioPower Systems did when engineering its bioSTREAM underwater generator. It’s inspired by shark tails, using the shape in a fixed device that moves with the motion of the ocean. It reverses the use of the tail, with the water moving it rather than it moving in the water, but by anchoring it to a fixed point it allows it to align itself in any direction depending on how the flow is moving. No word on just how cost-effective generating energy this way would be, however.

I wish they would add shark fins to them that stick out of the water. I’d pay to go see that – a giant field of artificial sharks swimming in an unchanging and immovable formation.

Read more about biologically inspired ocean power systems at the BioPower Systems website.

Link [Gizmodo] + [BioPower Systems]

Ripping Off Mother Nature For Design Tips Nets Better Wind Turbines

Biomimicry is the new hotness. Nature has done a pretty damn good job of figuring out the right way to design for efficiency and it’s the smart designer who can pull out those lesson to apply to their work. Wind turbines are now getting the whale flipper treatment. It turns out that the bumps on the edge of a whale’s flippers make it a more efficient paddler. When those bumps are added to wind turbines they are 20% more efficient at moving air and have 32% less drag. Those are huge numbers in efficiency jumps. When you have a wind farm that makes hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars a year, even a 10% jump in output adds up a lot of extra bottom line.

Smart green design is going to make a whole lotta folks a whole lotta money.

Link [Ecogeek]