A SEA FULL OF ENERGY
“The seas, flattened by the stronger gusts would lift again as the pressure decreased and then submerge the two extremities of the Nan Shan and floating on this white sheet of froth below darkening skies emanating bluish streaks of dim light....captain Mac Wirr witnessed a desolating sight.... The gale had seized Nan Shan with crazy and devastating fury...” Without getting to these vivid extremes described by Joseph Conrad in the “Typhoon”, we can all be frightened by a gale at sea and its ‘devastating fury’!
A fury that is nothing more than a small demonstration of the sea’s infinite energy, an energy which manifests itself with huge waves and currents, which stimulated by gale force winds, can become more powerful still in extreme conditions, just as described in Conrad’s description in “Typhoon”. We’re talking about an enormous energy for both the intensity it can reach and the quantity of ‘raw material’ available if, that is, we remember the sea extends for more than 70% of the earth’s surface area representing an undeniable immense source of energy and if we were able to harness only a minimum fraction of it, the world’s needs in terms of energy would be entirely resolved. But! Unfortunately there’s a mammoth problem which is as big as the sum of the seven seas. It has to do with the practical aspects linked to the exploitation of this enormous potential. Technical limits, obviously, but before them scientific and environmental ones. In fact the seas’ energy is difficult to harness, due mainly to the extremely violent way it often expresses itself and is equally difficult to exploit because the places in which this occurs are mostly far from lands to which the energy has then to be taken to, to be successfully exploited. Furthermore the knowledge currently available as to how to extract energy from the sea more efficiently is still somewhat limited. As we were saying, the potential is enormous and all industrialized Countries are investing huge capitals to find new systems and new standards for the extraction of energy from the sea. This is generating
