Its time to think about another alternative sources of energy than the conventionalones that pollute the environment .The main alternative source of energy is form wind and also from waves.
A new and innovative way is produce energy from Ocean Currents. A ocean current is like a vast river within the ocean, flowing from one place to another. There are different factors that contribute to the currents .The main things is the differences in temperature, differences in salinity, and by wind. Enormous quantity of water movement occurs in ocean currents.Gulf Stream and California Current are two known examples of ocean currents.
Ocean currents occur on surface and also in deep (Surface Ocean currents and Deep Ocean currents).Unlike wind blows ocean current flows in unique direction.The density of water determines the strength of the current.The ocean current flows thousand of kilometers and plays a dominant part in the Earths climate change.The density of water is 800 times that of air.Water moving at 12 miles per hour is equivalent to 110 mph wind speed.
Similar to wind turbines ,submerged water turbines are used to extract energy
Marine current energy is in the early stages of its development. the US, Japan , China and some European Union countries are experimenting the technology. Environmental impacts ,impacts on marine species etc. should be studied before the implementation.
References:
http://ocsenergy.anl.gov/guide/current/index.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_current
image courtesy: wikipedia
Sign up here with your email