A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy • Hacker News Board

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#21

Post by dgivney » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 5:59 AM UTC

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #13

just-ok wrote: post #5

It’s honestly a shame that we didn’t keep pursuing sail technology. It’s great that we’re finally getting somewhere environmentally-friendly with ship tech nowadays as in the OP, but if we’d put the same amount of effort to innovate and advance sails like we did steam, I imagine we’d have pretty amazing (and completely green) methods of transport for all but the heaviest cargo loads (and even then, just split the loa…

I think you're vastly underestimating how slow it is to ship things by sail. Take a look at some of the routes boats had to take to avoid the doldrums and find favorable winds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winds_in_the_Age_of_Sail . Having to sail 2/3 of the way to America just to stay in good winds added 3 weeks to a month to every trip out of Spain or Portugal. Take a look at the clipper route https://en.wikipedia…

You are correct for that time period and technology. Linen sails on square rigged vessels required directional winds towards your destination, as they were only efficient for downwind sailing.

Things have greatly improved with the wide adoption of the Bermuda Rig allowing you to efficiently set a course on all points of sail; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_rig

There's many challenges for sailing commercial freight but I don't think this would be as much of an issue these days.

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#22

Post by messo » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 6:31 AM UTC

> The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view.

Maybe this is what finally could push companies towards making lighter and more efficient websites? At least an estimate of a webpages watt usage (server and client side).

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#23

Post by genocidicbunny » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 6:32 AM UTC

just-ok wrote: post #11

genocidicbunny wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine there would be that many. Sails just don't provide all that much motive force, and they're far too unreliable (wind dies down, it doesn't matter how much sail you have.) Maybe the GP was thinking more along the lines of general 'green' tech -- wind turbines, solar panels, etc? It would certainly be cool to see more of those to supplement existing propulsion systems on ships, and that would help reduce…

Combining technologies would absolutely be a great way to pivot, as the article shows. Maybe it’s a dumb question, but why don’t we have sails on modern ships as a supplement? I just lament that we basically completely abandoned such a great mechanism (sails) so haphazardly just because coal was cheap & reliable; now the environment pays the price.

Sails take quite a bit of space to store, they aren't exactly the lightest thing, and you need training and coordination of the sailors to deal with them. They also probably just dont provide enough benefit to offset the costs -- as I said before, sails don't actually provide that much force.

There are a lot of smaller boats that have both sail and mechanical engines, but that only works because they're small enough that the sails can provide a significant amount of force. And if you look at the transition period between the Age of Sail and Age of Steam, there were a lot of boats and ships that had both sail and steam engines. The sails were mainly relegated to backup, or to help out the steam engines, but these hybrids existed.

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#24

Post by aussieguy1234 » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 6:37 AM UTC

I've been in one of the traditional Philippines boats on a trip to an island in not so calm seas, we hired the boat and crew for the day.

It was an interesting but scary experience, probably won't be doing it again. The island was decent.

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#25

Post by mehrdadn » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:03 AM UTC

messo wrote: post #22

> The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Maybe this is what finally could push companies towards making lighter and more efficient websites? At least an estimate of a webpages watt usage (server and client side).

> The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view.

Holy cow, that is a lot. 1-3 grams of CO2 per single load of a page? Makes me feel guilty about even clicking the article.

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#26

Post by erikmolin » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:03 AM UTC

russfink wrote: post #14

Novice here - isn't there some static hull shape that would react to waves and result in motion, much like those plastic widgets that spin only in one direction?

surfboard shape?

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#27

Post by dtech » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:26 AM UTC

mehrdadn wrote: post #25

messo wrote: post #22

> The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Maybe this is what finally could push companies towards making lighter and more efficient websites? At least an estimate of a webpages watt usage (server and client side).

> The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Holy cow, that is a lot . 1-3 grams of CO2 per single load of a page? Makes me feel guilty about even clicking the article.

That is not a lot. it's about 4mWh for coal power.

In comparison, leaving a 300W computer setup on for 10 hours each day with coal power is 3KWh or 2.5kg of CO2.

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#28

Post by baaym » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:27 AM UTC

mehrdadn wrote: post #25

messo wrote: post #22

> The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Maybe this is what finally could push companies towards making lighter and more efficient websites? At least an estimate of a webpages watt usage (server and client side).

> The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Holy cow, that is a lot . 1-3 grams of CO2 per single load of a page? Makes me feel guilty about even clicking the article.

When I reached the bottom of the page it even loaded an extra article. Now that's a real waste of CO2.

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#29

Post by bigbluedots » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:34 AM UTC

Aren't all ships partly powered by wave energy if they're facing the right way?

Re: A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy

#30

Post by manveru » Thu, Aug 06, 2020, 7:38 AM UTC

messo wrote: post #22

> The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2. The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1.2g to 3.6g CO2 per page view. Maybe this is what finally could push companies towards making lighter and more efficient websites? At least an estimate of a webpages watt usage (server and client side).

I recently saw another site that tries to offset its carbon footprint: https://mynoise.net/carbonFootprintCompensation.php

I hope this becomes more prevalent at least for paid services.