GB2465241A - Renewable energy island constructed from interconnected cylinders - Google Patents

Abstract

A system incorporates wind, wave and tide powered water pumps to supply water to an array of interconnected vertical cylinders or silos. The water provided by these sources is stored in the cylinders until needed and is then used to drive a turbine and generator, which may be contained within a similar vertical cylinder. The cylinders may be arranged on a very large scale so that the structure has dimensions comparable to a small island, and may present a contoured upper surface to assist wind flow over the structure. The base of the cylinders may have openings to minimise restriction to water flow under the structure. The cylinders may be constructed in sections for ease of dismantling for repair or maintenance. The cylinders may further be connected to pumps that are located remotely (iii).

Description

A combined energy production and energy storage system.

This is a single but integrated and composite multi-faceted invention which provides, in a particular and novel way, the means by which the energy from wind, wave and tide can be harvested, stored and released as necessary for the production of hydro-electricty for the national grid at the one site. The means relate to mechanisms driven by the aforesaid sources, converting thefr energy to producing a head of water. This head of water is then stored or dammed in a large number of interconnected vertical cylinders or silos and is subsequently released, as necessary, to drive central hydro-electric generating plant for the purpose ofproducing electricity. Such water is collected by pumps activated through the energy of wind and sea-surge (wave and tidal power) at the one site or from pumps similarly activated at sites distant from the silos in the surrounding sea or on nearby land. This pump activation may be mediated indirectly, in case of the wind and / or the tide, by them being turned by appropriately related turbines, or directly, in the case of wave power, causing flotation tanks to rise and fall, thence to actuate a pump mechanism. All these pumps fill the silos with water to produce a head of water. Conversion of the head of water so attained to electrical energy is through a preferably central and single hydro-electric generating plant. Inherent in the invention's design is the housing of or the provision of the potential to house, all the machinery or mechanisms required for these operations, on any site offering a source of wind and water but relates preferably to those sites at sea or at coastal sites where the benefits of energy from sea-surge (wave and tide) may be added to that of wind and where access to and disposal of water for the hydro-electric system is massive or unlimited. The silos and their attendant mechanisms are, as a collection at sea, of such proportions as to create an island or atoll'. Though the invention essentially embraces the use of many silos at any one site as stated, it encompasses the use of a small number where this is sufficient to be useful and efficient.

Helpful notes for clarification of the text -Please note that this is, as stated, a single invention of which there are many parts, the most fundemental being the machinery to harvest the energy, the machinery to convert it to a head of water, silos to store that head of water and hydro-electric machinery to convert that head of water in to electrical energy.

-Though the preferred combinations of these parts are described, the invention allows of itself and embraces a virtually limitless spectum of sizes and shapes and combinations to accommodate particular weather and tidal conditions and does this through the flexible use of the number, size and disposition (fig. 2) of those parts -At the large end of the scale it has the proportions of a small island or large atoll', the latter name used occassionally in the description to aid envisagement of its size (as shown in fig. 1), while at the other end of the spectrum it will, when it is very small, only have the proportions of an oil platform at sea.

Please note that here as in the claims later, the use of the word structure' is meant to be indicative of the complete expression or encompassment of the invention in all its parts (figs. 1, 6) When silos, as parts, are to be discussed collectively the use of silo complex' may be used for the reason it best conjers up the image intended of a mix' of the three silo types (fig. 3) -The words cylinder' and silo' are interchangeable and mean the same item; cylinder conjuring up in the reader's mind the essential shape, silo however having an inflexion of common usage that most conjures up the special disposition and use intended for that shape i.e. of a closed vertical cylinder meant for storage.

-Though not exclusively, as is alluded to later, the invention essentially is one to be used off-shore, in the sea or in the ocean.

-Sea-surge embraces tide and wave power -The use of the word dam' in the text is only to relate certain advantages of the invention to it, a dam being a comparably sized water storage facility, one function of which also may be to serve a hydro-electric facility. A dam is a barrier spanning a gorge or river bed chasm to hold back waters flowing through them.

-The scope of the diagrams is meant to reflect and demonstrate the essence of the features of the invention not least its potential plasticity of form and not to give particular detail of construction.

Background discussion

The output of land and sea-based wind turbine generators, and sea-wave energy devices suffer from natural fluctuations in wind strength. This means such output cannot reliably be counted on or supplied in a manner that best sub-serves local needs or those of a national grid.

Tidal power is predictable but its ever-changing status, both in time and force, results in energy being produced at times which, similarly, will not consistently coincide with local or national grid needs.

However, failure, to date, of providing a means of storing energy from these or any other renewable sources has been held as a serious objection to them and has undermined enthusiasm for them on a larger scale than might be. As things stand, the present contribution from such sources, and the devices and machineries they drive, to the national grid is so small as to be easily absorbed at any time, so that storage and timed release of their output is thus seen as essentially irrelevant. It is not to say that their output could not be better used to support peak needs of the national grid, but to take part in a large contribution to the national grid, it is essential the energy from such devices needs to be stored so its distribution can be appropriately timed.

The ability to store energy from renewable resources and to control the time and magnitude of its release would provide the impetus for their consideration and acceptance as a major contributor to the national grid.

Thus to expect a serious contribution of energy from wind, wave and tide to the national grid, expansion of the capture of this energy will need to go hand in hand with developing a means for storage of this energy. To date no such parallel development has occurred. Only an immense storage system such as encompassed by this invention will cope. This storage also allows the use of a central generating facility and its inherent efficiencies.

Accordingly the present invention totally addresses these relevancies and solves the problems, as one of its features, of providing such storage.

Conventional land based hydroelectric dams store water which can be released at will to best serve energy requirements as they are needed. However such dams are sub-served by land based natural sources of water, which, in the present climate of global warming, are dwindling and may continue to do so. Such dams cause from their construction a considerable intrusion into natural habitat, both locally, and downstream and upstream especially, with the intrinsic and necessary flooding often displacing whole established towns and villages and the peoples, industry and civilization that goes with them. Their construction is always of a design inherently and catastrophically vulnerable to earthquakes, war and terrorism. Their initial cost in money, displacement of people and geographic change is formidable.

The present common manner in which energy is retrieved from the wind is through a two or three bladed wind turbines' connected to an electricity generator as a compact and self-contained unit, and these are sited on vertical stanchions which can swivel so as to best catch the wind. They are, by world wide and thus common usage erroneously known as wind turbines' when they are, in fact, wind turbine generators. Clarification is important at this point in this background discussion. A wind turbine, is strictly speaking a rotor attached to a shaft that rotates by virtue of wind passing over the surfaces of its rotor's foils. The rotation of that shaft can be used to perform work of any kind for e.g. windmill uses wind to turn roller which crush grain. In the ensuing discussion and description the use of the pure wind turbine' is to denote just that and to differentiate between the two as it is pure wind turbines, suspended on a stanchion or frame, that the present invention encompasses.

When there is a considerable multiplicity of wind turbine generator units they constitute a wind farm. When such farms are based on land they raise serious objections ecologically and socially because of the visual impact from their geographical position, the land they consume, the noise they make and the interference with the habitat and survival of local wild life. In fact these are essentially the same problematic issues as affect the aforementioned conventional land based dams.

These issues have been addressed somewhat by placing the wind turbine generators off-shore but there are structural limitations on the height at which such single units can be built. Also there is no provision for storing the energy they produce. Furthermore the placement, maintenance, and the connection and conduction of the output of those turbine generators at sea, as the individual items that indeed they are, is inefficient and more costly than needs be than if they were built and housed on a common platform. Another problem levelled at such off-shore installations is that it has been found that wind patterns and strengths are better at on-shore and land based installations than in the flat and open sea.

A common platform per se however would not solve the problem of storing the energy produced by wind turbines or any other wave or tidal mechanism or indeed the housing of such mechanisms.

At present, wind turbine generators also suffer from the fact that they will not start in very light wind and that in severe winds they have to be slowed or governed to prevent damage to their mechanisms and thus in both situations failing to make use of much of the available wind. Because the invention provides a very high and specifically slanted platform' winds forces will be stronger with accellerated updrafts so rotor start will be easier. When the wind conditions are severe the absence of a generator mechanism means there are no complex mechanisms to protect. Revised wind technology will almost certainly ensue and result in smaller rotor sizes with an increased density of their presence. The placement of the pure wind turbines on a slope means that they cover' each other less, again allowing an increased density of their presence.

Again, as things now stand, the erratic and un-adjusted and Un-adjustable contribution that wind, wave and tide make to the national grid is very small (un-adjustable is used in the sense that no one would want to shut its contribution down, its default out-put being wanted what ever it can produce).

Again as mentioned above the present contribution is, in reality, so trivial that the issue of its storage is relatively unimportant; because the minimal needs the national grid can easily absorb any such contribution at any time, it could, in any case, through the control of its (ie the grid's) other sources of supply (coal, nuclear, gas and oil), adjust for it.

For the reasons discussed, any major contribution by the sources of wind, wave and tide to the national grid will require a storage system and the present invention provides this.

The erratic nature of these energy sources can be smoothed out completely or better controlled if the energy is not converted initially to electricity but converted to a head of stored water and thence into electricity as in a conventional hydroelectric dam.

The stored head of water will occur whenever there is wind, wave and tide to produce it.

An advantage of harvesting wind and wave power together at a single site is that wave power wifi continue well after the wind that created it has died, thus giving a prolongation of the wind's effect and from the two sources a more continuous and sustained, or less erratic, supply of energy.

The present invention is designed to do precisely this by incorporating the capacity to house, and the actual housing of the mechanisms to harvest energy from wind and waves but also the :7 tide at the same site, simultaneously or separately as weather and tidal conditions may dictate.

The present invention allows the harvested energy of many hundreds if not thousands of such mechanisms (ie wind turbines etc) to be converted to electricity through a single or very small number of generating plants at the one site.

Through its particular construction, that being that the total potential of stored water is held in a multitude of silos instead of one container' as presently occurs with conventional hydro-electric dams, the present invention is resistant to catastrophic consequences of terrorism, war and earthquake or other tectonic plate or foundation movements. Of course, being at sea or at a coastal site, any catastrophic release of water would be absorbed by the sea in which or by which they stand and may not affect any nearby land.

The invention in fact creates a land mass at sea that in itself may induce, through its shape, and its temperature difference to the sea, better wind patterns and strengths than are available to the present situation of wind turbines emerging in a solitary manner, as now is the case, from a flat sea.

Essential Technical Features Part of the present invention provides for the construction of large water silos in the particular manner determined by the invention as follows, where the energy from wind, wave and tide may be harnessed, preferably at sea or in a coastal site and thus avoiding the aforementioned disadvantages. However land sites are not precluded as wind alone may be used there to pump water from a neighbouring source to fill the silos and subsequently produce hydroelectric power.

The present invention resolves the problems of the aforementioned conventional land and sea based wind farms and land based dams by providing vertical water storage silos, of a specific structure, which support a multitude of devices capable of harvesting the energy from wind wave and tide, converting and storing it as a head of water and thence into hydro-electricity. The upper end of the silo is capped and thus simultaneously offers of itself the potential to be a platform for solar power and the collection of fresh water in reservoir' proportions, (especially when there is a large number of silos) by virtue of presenting a massive sky facing surface area.

It is an important feature of this invention that, although the total potential capacity of the stored water might approach or exceed the volume of a conventional land based dam, the multi-chambered or cellular nature (as shown in fig. 4) which the cylinders present, requires very much less thickness of their containing walls than would be in the case as compared to the single wall of a land based dam. This is definitely simpler in engineering terms and may result in material and labour savings.

By the emptying the silos(s), and keeping it (them) empty through the use of the isolating/connecting valves at their bases, maintenance, repair and even replacement (using the segmentation system for their construction as is discussed later) can occur without affecting adjacent cylinders or the general function of the invention as a whole.

According to the present invention the dam is formed by a multiplicity of vertical cylinders, preferably constructed of pre-fabricated concrete segments, adjacent to, touching, connected but preferably not irreversibly fused to each other, and appropriately interconnected by adjustable valves or gates' near their bases so that their contents can be directed at will to flow freely across to each other or otherwise to a special dedicated silo (fig. 3a) which is not for storing water but which is dedicated to housing, in its base, a common or central generator or generators and, above this, the equipment for monitoring them and their maintenance and service.

There are three fundemental silo types:-a central generating silo (fig. 3,a) in which are the hydro-electric generators, and the central monitoring, central control and electricity distribution machinery.

The flow of water into and out of the generator is shown by arrows.

:-the basic storage and wind turbine/water pump silo (fig. 3,b) which both in number and in volume constitute the bulk of the silos in the structure -the pump which is situated in the basement of this silo is shown (dotted) and also in fig. 5.

:-the marginal fresh water storage and wave/tide pump silos (fig. 3,c) which are located around the margins of the structure so they can best capture the effect of wave and tide and also the fresh water that drains to the periphery from the surfaces of the tops of the other silos -part of the tide/wave pump can be seen through the scalloped area in the base.

All three types of silos have a cylindrical body which is capped at its top and has a containing bottom.

As mentioned, the top of each silo is capped and on this cap are positioned pure wind turbines (by definition; a wind responsive rotor and its shaft) which drive water pumps which raise and force water around the base of the silo into the silo itself so as to fill it up. Though the water pumps driven by the wind turbines are preferably located at the bottom of the inter-silo space or in the substance of the base of the silo itself (fig. 5,a) , being activated respectively by a reciprocating connecting rod or driving shaft reaching the pump from the turbine via the inter-silo space (fig. 5,b,i) or through the silo itself, the invention does not preclude other situations for placement of the water pump (fig. 16).

Wind turbines, as they are generally and presently known, typically incorporate a generator for converting the wind energy to electricity and are independent units. As such the units are necessarily expensive and their very disposition on high individual towers and as electrical devices, exposes them particularly to the elements especially salt, if at sea, and makes their servicing necessarily frequent, difficult and expensive.

Water pump technology, as developed through the mining and, (c2 especially, the off-shore oil industry, is well established and comparatively cheaper and is more tried and reliable in the hostile sea air and sea water environment as such than wind turbine generator technology.

By using a multiplicity of pure wind turbines (and/or wave and tide mechanisms) to pump water into communicating storage silos and using their contents to drive a common central generating unit, the costs of such a multiplicity of individual generators is eliminated. The central generating unit being housed and properly protected as in a standard power station facility, such as exists in hydro-electric power stations, will mean monitoring, maintenance and repair is covered, convenient and can accommodate and allow a standby or back-up generator to be used as needs demand.

By positioning these pure wind turbines on the top of the silos their exposure to the stronger winds that occur at greater heights will be advantageous and if the silos are compacted and arranged so as to create a slope from the waters edge to the highest of the silos in the centre then the flow of wind off the sea (fig4w) will be of an anabatic nature and add to the winds strength, the structure as a whole acting as a land mass and attracting the attendant advantageous wind strengths and patterns that land mass is known to have over those of open water.

At the inside of the base of those silos on the margin or the edge of the aggregation of the silos or the silo complex, where they will be exposed most immediately to the effect of waves and tide, is provision of space to house the machinery and the presence of that machinery to convert wave and tide energy into pump action, as with the wind turbines, to similarly contribute to the water head in the silo complex as a whole. (figs. 3c, 7b, 10) According to the present invention the energy from wind, wave and tide is used to drive water pumps so that water is pumped into these silos which either collectively or individually acts a water store specially designed for convenient and economic // construction at sea (or in a coastal position) so as to reap the benefits from such energy.

Incorporate in the present invention is hydro-electric generating equipment designed to be sited preferably, though not exclusively at sea (or in a coastal position) and as integral part of the silo complex in the base of a dedicated silo (fig. 3a,16) which houses and incorporates the generating machinery described herein to generate electricity from the head of water in the surrounding silos which was generated by wind, wave, and tide pumping water into the silos. This generating equipment, however, may be housed a distance from the silos as may be advantageous when they are situated in a coastal or terrestrial position. It does not preclude the invention being use on land as the advantages of safety, due to its specific structure, and of wind capture, as mentioned above, will function in that situation also.

The invention provides that a water head generated in the manner described above but just off-shore might be more conveniently delivered via a pipeline to an electricity generating facility on land. It is implicit that this storage system can also be connected to accommodate the pumped water from mechanisms which are not in house', so to speak, but which lie in the surrounding sea or even on nearby land.

Though provision is made in the invention to accommodate preferably the collection and storage of water and its use from all the stated three sources of energy, any one source or other combination of them can justify the invention of which one facet is simply to store energy from the natural sources of wind, wave and tide.

The present invention provides a very safe and easily built system for the storage of water and its controlled release for the purpose of producing hydro-electricity.

The upper end of the silos will be covered with flat caps or plates, preferably steel reinforced concrete, which will be arranged to be confluent with or slightly overlapping each other so as to produce an essentially continuous flat or flattish surface which is pitched in some degree so that it, or any overlapping that may be a part of its apposition to an adjacent cap, allows a run-off which slopes gently to the edge of the silo complex (fig.7a).

This continuous surface will provide: -a smooth or relatively smooth path for wind to be directed and move over the wind turbines and complement the total shape of the multiplicity of the silos to form a raised atoll' of water, which in profile will appear like a table top mountain (fig. 4a, 6) whose sloping sides will aid in the acceleration of wind up the slopes and over the wind turbines as occurs naturally over seaside hills and mountains in the form of anabatic winds -a massive flat surface, its solar footprint, to house solar panels for the production of electricity; its use in this manner is completely optional -a massive flat surface for the collection of rain water into dedicated fresh water silos, which will be located at the bottom of the slopes and at the perimeter of the atoll (fig. 7a) to create fresh water reservoirs, and which are not for hydroelectric purposes -again this use is completely optional but the demand for fresh water is ever present and growing and that large surface, as a part of the structure, and being ever be there, beckons its use.

-a means of fixation of the base of the wind turbines to the structure of the dam (fig.12) -access portals for servicing, maintenance and repair of the wind pump mechanisms, the fabric of the silos and access for operators of the central generating silo (s) (fig.3a(1) The bottom of all the silos are to be scalloped near to or as they join the sea floor foundations so as to allow free ingress and egress of water (fig. 8) for the water pumps (figs. 5,6), wave-tide (figs 3c,7) and overflow mechanisms (fig. 14) at that level. In the /3 case of the silos at the periphery of the silo complex such scalloping will be significantly greater i.e. up to or near the sea surface to allow free ingress and egress of wave and tidal sea flow over the mechanisms designed for the capture of the energy from that flow (fig. 7 b). It is important to appreciate that the silos at the periphery are by their very position able to form a dual task i.e. be exposed to the effect of wave and tide and, being at the bottom edge of the slope covering the tops of the other silos, are able to collect rain draining downwards. As has been indicated above, these silos at the periphery being used to collect rain water will have, in their bases, the machinery mentioned above for extracting energy from wave and tide and the product of that energy capture, pumped water (fig. 10 (i)), will be diverted to silos which are more central and dedicated to storing the water head needed for producing hydro-electric power.

The invention provides for the diversion of any overflow from the silos that occurs from continued action of the water pumps, when the silos are full, to the central generating silo(s).

Such overflow thus may continue to contribute to the grid as required. Equalisation of the levels in the silos occurs through the connections between them at their bases, and when overflow occurs through connection at their tops. What overflow is not diverted for either of these two purposes can be shed through an overflow piped into the sea (fig. 14 (i-v)) The mechanism for converting wave and tidal energy into a head of water is a single one and is as follows: the principle of using a common mechanism is demonstrated in fig. 9 where flotation (b) produces lift and descent and the foils or cusps (a) capture horizontal flow and cause rotation a large cylindrical drum has, at its centre a hollow, axially orientated sleeve which accommodates a shaft embedded centrally in the centre of the sea bed attachment of the silo below /4' and in the floor of the silo above, and acts as a sliding bearing for that shaft in such a way that the drum is able to ascend and descend as well as rotate over a fixed spot (figs. 9, 3c,7b,1O). On the periphery of the parallel sides of the drum are turbine blades which are shaped and directed so as to gain maximum purchase on the flow of the tide and the horizontal component of the wave motion as they surge past. The vertical component of any wave will cause the drum to rise and descend on its central shaft as it is specifically directed in its transit through the base of the silo (fig. 15). The rise and fall action of the drum actuates a plunge or piston type water pump (fig. 10(iii).) and the rotary action of the drum actuates the same pistons through the presence of cam lifts on the top surface of the drum (fig. 10(u)). Both deliver water from that site under pressure to a nearby silo. In this manner both tide and wave contribute to the water head by their action on the same pump mechanism whose general design is shown (fig. 10). Inherent in the design of the invention is the particular disposition of the silos accommodating such mechanisms, so that their positions at the margins of the complex best catch the effects of the tide and waves. Similarly tide or wave guides or walls leading from the sea into the bases of the silos are encompassed by the invention as they may need to be built so as to funnel and enhance the force and direction of the tide and waves. (figs. 6, 15) It is implicit that, although these particular silos are on the periphery as stated, the invention embodies the concept that they may indeed be banked at the periphery some several rows deep so as to capture any residual wave and tide motion after it has been through the first row.

Scale of the invention. This is preferably to encompass a multitude of silos to form a silo complex where the contained water capacity will be millions of cubic metres, as might be found in the Hoover or Aswan dams down to a few silos or even a single silo. The height of such silos will be in the hundreds of metres or fractions thereof and the area of such complexes will be numbers of square kilometres or fractions thereof. Where the complexes are massive their general profile, allowing for the slopes and fall-off from the central silos to the periphery for the reasons discussed above, will be like an island (figs. 4a, 6) but especially so allowing that these storage complexes have the potential to be connected by pipework to accommodate the pumped water from tens or hundreds of wind, wave and tide mechanisms outside the complex in the surrounding sea or on nearby land.

Advantages inherent in the invention are: As a building site for the invention the sea floor is likely to be available and free and, especially in the case of shallow areas, useless as shipping lanes or un-navigable for ordinary shipping purposes, ideal, as building in shallow waters is more economical than in deep ones.

The site chosen for good wind will be naturally complemented by good wave power, allowing that appropriate water depth and sea bed conditions exist.

The effect of the construction will be to create what is effectively a land mass with the attendant advantages of wind patterns which have been shown to have over those of bare flat sea areas. This includes the effect of anabatic winds ascending over the purpose built slope that the invention describes.

The whole mechanism is preferably away from land and obviates the disadvantages, as outlined above, that dams on land and wind turbines farms which are land based, incur.

These are of a design and construction which can be used at sea, or on the coast or land, and which makes them safer against such vulnerability to the problems of earthquake, war and terrorism as are conventional dams.

Their design enables a modulear silo construction and for segment prefabrication off-site.

The definitive construction provides a massive surface area for deriving solar power and collection of fresh rain water.

According to the present invention wind is harvested by pure turbines that drive water pumps and not generators. This obviates the confines that different wind speeds imposes on the blade design of typical wind turbine generators. Also pumps are a fraction of the cost of the generating component of the latter..

Conventional wind turbine generators are situated on towers which need to be substantial to carry not only the turbine blades or rotor and its shaft but a heavy generator to complete the pod, whereas in the present invention, this pod, not being present, means the tower can be of lighter and/or cheaper construction -such construction can be of the light open steel broad based pylon fabrications that are used to support high voltage wires in the national grid, and as such result in virtually no interference with air flow over the turbines' rotor foils -the substantial poles presently necessary to carry the wind turbine generator units do interfere with the dynamics of air flow and balance at high rotor speeds.

The tide and wave energy is preferably harvested by a number of single units or machines which collect energy from both sources to drive water pumps and not generators. The silos at the periphery of the complex conveniently house, in their bases at sea level, the machinery for this purpose.

Centralised generating and power monitoring equipment will mean better control of the out-put from its multitude of energy harvesting machineries and will mean less cost in cabling its combined and massive electricity production to shore than that needed to link and similarly get to shore the out-put from a conventional wind turbine farm at sea where its individual wind turbine generators stand alone and separate.

Repairs to the pure wind turbines of the invention can only be of a purely mechanical nature and can be carried out from what is effectively a land' surface and therefore not be so confined to the vagaries of the weather as would allow a necessary maintenance ship for a conventional wind turbine generator at sea.

The housing of the central generating plant in a dedicated silo will offer good weather protection for the electrical and electronic nature of that plant.

The disposition of the pure wind turbines in relation to each other can be a closer one on the slopes of the atoll as the slant can stagger their height so they do not directly blanket the wind from each other.

Like hydro-electric energy as a whole this invention will, in action, have a zero C02 footprint with the advantage of no radiation concerns as occur with nuclear generating plant.

Nuclear generating plant has a life-span of 25 years while that of hydro-electric plant has been known to be running for almost three times that span and may be indefinite.

Unlike nuclear generating plant decommissioning of this invention, should it ever be needed, is safe and, because of the segmental construction of the silos, can be piece-meal, the reverse of its construction and therefore relatively easy.

Nuclear generating plant can be used for no other purpose than generating energy and has to be compulsorally decommissioned at the end of its effective life, a process that can take over two decades, while the present invention would never need a complicated or time consuming decommissioning, and may, in its empty and retired situation, offer the genesis of an island with the potential attendant on any such land mass and where its cellular construction might indeed have the potential for a massive storage and for industrial and accommodation scenarios where isolation is important.

Catastrophic irradiation scenarios such as happened in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island cannot happen.

The invention produces no nuclear waste with its attendent problems of collection, disposal and recyling and a certain vulnerability of all that to accidental and criminal spill.

The renewable energy resources to drive this invention are free, and except for tidal power, are likely to increase in frequency and strength as global warming continues, because such warming results in less stable atmospheric conditions with more wind and wave production whereas the uranium or other such radioactive and fissionable material required to fuel nuclear power stations, while not only expensively resourced, may not always be available, not only because it is a limited natural resource but also because of ever changing geo-political and thus uncertain and unpredictable situations that can prevail in the future.

The design of the invention inherently incorporates cellular water storage features so that a catastrophic release of water such as might occur in the event of earthquake or from an act of terrorism, is obviated.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described with references to the accompanying drawings in which:-According to the present invention a multitude of interconnected, preferably round, (or essentially round for e.g. hexagonal section) vertical silos, both shown cross in section in Fig. 11. a-b,) which can be independently isolated in terms of their stored contents, and which may, for instance, be 50-100 metres wide x 1 kilometre high, constitute the substance of the structure and are located around a central generating plant, itself contained inside a silo, preferably of the same dimensions, and which is fed water from the surrounding silos, to produce electricity by regulating the appropriate release of water from them through remotely controlled valves.

The collective effect of such a collection of silos, with all its attendant machinery, is to create a structure like an island or an atoll', as in Figs.1,4a,6 the latter name loosely adapted from its literal definition.as a ring shaped reef enclosing a lagoon. The physical water content of this atoll' above the sea, or its hydro-electric potential, when full, will approach the cubic dimensions of (/q the atoll. The area and height will be based on established data from existing hydro-electric systems and dams but take into account local data in respect of tide, wind and wave. In particular the slopes, as shown in Fig. 4a,6,15, from silos at the water's edge of the atoll to the top of it highest silos will be such that it will aid the movement and acceleration of wind up and through the wind pumps in a manner known as anabatic.

The concept of building the structure as silos means that they need only be relatively thin walled as compared to a conventional dam. Because of their inherent or fundemental verticallity it also means they can stand, each relatively independent in its own right as compared to the massive buiwarking and the thickness needed, and land encompassment for physical purchase, as occurs with the single containment of conventional dams. That thinner walls can be used is due to the inherent strength imparted by the curved cylindrical section and also the lower volume of each indivual silo's contents. However independent the silos are, they are arranged to butt against each other thus, while not necessarily sustaining each other, they have the potential to brace each others' position being connected at the top, as in figs. 4a,b and having a common sea -bed foundation, create an integrated and effectively self supporting structure. The abutment to each other provides effectively reinforcement at that point and this in turn assists in the designing and building of such a silo as a segmented structure.The effect of the silos is multiple containerisation' of its total contents, meaning that damage to one silo would not necessarily affect the others or their contents.This is because valves at the connections at the bases of the dams can be used to drain the contents and isolate any one silo. The effect of such containment in adjacent units may be considered as honey-combing', shown in the plan view of figs. 4b, 11 a,b which in an engineering sense, implies considerable advantages in terms of strength for material used.

According to the present invention the number, height and diameter of the silos will determine its contents and, as mentioned, preferably such silos will be round in section or essentially round as might occur from being hexagonal as in Figs. 11 a,b. This is for strength and also, in the case of a round sections, silos like that will pack easily together for strength and may do so in a configuration such that, if they are of equal diameter, they can circumferentially surround, in whole numbers, a central silo of the same diameter and which contains at its base the hydro-electric generating machinery.

Geometrically further silos can be placed concentrically around these conveniently in whole numbers eventually forming a freestanding and circular atoll'. Thus it is a preferable feature of the silos that they are of a single diameter. This simplifies modular and segmentational construction of the invention as a whole. Though the invention embraces silos other than those of round cross section, round section is the most desirable because apart from being the strongest, it allows greatest flexability of cross section or foot print for the construction as a whole. Also it provides a very convenient, useful and strongly encompassed tri-stellate space along the entire length of the silos forming it, for monitoring, inspection, servicing and repair and a portal for routing pipe work, or rods connnecting the wind turbines on top with the water pumps at the bases of the silos. (figs. 1 1(b),(c) According to the invention the silos, as they are distanced from the centre of the structure, that is as they are located more to its periphery, will, after having provided the greater mass of the dam, be reduced in height in a preferably concentric manner, or a manner dictated by the known prevailing wind(s), so as to create a downward slope that runs towards the perimeter at the waters edge. The tops of all the silos will be covered in a continuous layer of concrete lids that are flat or near flat over the highest silos but start to fall off in such a way as to form a curved smooth or slightly stepped slope over the rows of the shorter and more peripheral ones near or at the surrounding water's edge (fig. 7a) . It is important that curve of this slope is related to what is known to be ideal for the production of anabatic winds which will be thus be accelerated and sweep up and over the dam advantageously to energise the wind pumps which cover the confluent lids on the tops of the silos (fig. 4 a).

According to the invention it is designed to be built at sea or at or on the coast thereby obviating the objections outlined above (in background discussion) relating to conventional dams and its design incorporates the wind, wave and tidal energy capture mechanisms as these are integral with it and so that the objections to land based wind turbines will not prevail.

According to the invention it is built at sea or on the coast where according to reliable predictions the source of water for the structure will increase by way of rising sea levels and thus not be afflicted by reduced land based sources needed for conventional hydro-electric dams, which, according to similarly reliable predictions, will be due to planet warming causing decreasing fixation of air moisture as rain, snow and ice on mountains.

The invention can be built in relatively shallow water in the safe knowledge the world's polar ice caps are melting and that this may deepen, and importantly, in water not necessarily presently used or likely to be used for or deemed suitable for navigation of shipping.

Advantageously, as previously mentioned, building is less costly in shallow water.

According to the invention it incorporates the means and machinery by which wind, wave and tide are harvested to fill the silos and it is to the substance and fabric that the silos provide, that the machinery for the energy collection is fixed. The devices for the initial capturing of the wind energy will be wind turbines and these are preferably fixed on the lid at the periphery of the silos where they will preferably lie directly above the spaces between the silos. Here this tri-stellate space (figs. lie, 12) is bound by a triad of curved silo rims which offers a very sound support for the bases of the wind turbines. As a single silo can have up to six abutting silos, and therefore six tri-stellate spaces, there is ample choice of positions on which to site the base of each silo. The wind turbines are connected through their shafts either directly to a crank and reciprocating rods or through a gearbox and rotating rods which pass down the intersilo space to the base of the silos to join pistonlplunge or rotating type pumps (fig. 5). These now pump sea water from around and beneath the base of the silo into the silo. The intersilo space can also be used to service the silo and pump machinery. The access of water to the bottom of the inter-silo space from the surrounding sea is through scalloping of the silo bases (fig. 8).

According to the invention the silos are sited on the sea -bed.

They are preferably of a segmental structure throughout their entirety so the items can be fabricated on land, thence shipped by air or sea and fitted together on site. The invention preferably provides for such segments to be removable from the silo from its inside so that the need for replacement, repair or servicing can be facilitated, after isolation from its neighbours and drainage, without the need for interference with the silo(s) immediately adjacent nor with the continuing function of electricity production from the silos and generating machinery as a whole.

Figs. 13 a,b,c,d,e, depict the general strategy for such segmentation as just described -a -this shows an example of how the longitudinal seal (which may be made of a firm rubber) is aided in its seating between the segments by virtue of water pressure in the silo and how, in the adjacent silo (lower), when the seals are removed, a segment can be rotated inwards, for examination, repair in situ or removal, without interfering with the silo onto which it abuts.

b -a close-up view to show the lengthwise overlapping of neighboring segments and how the release of one need not disturb the others.

c -a view to show the general lie of the segmented silo with interdigitating alternate lengthwise segments d -a view to show an important feature necessary in the design and casting of the segments and that is the horizontal recess traversing their outer surface to accommodate metal bands that can be clamped after placement to bind the segments together. The cut away section shows the recess clearly with a band in place. It can be seen that, through the means of the vertical interdigitation of the segments, the bands, once in place, need not be released for the placement, or removal and replacement, of a segment and accordingly may be permanent.

e -shows the placement of the transverse seal (ii) and the detail of the cross section of the segments' transverse joint which allows internal removal of the segments. Seating of that seal is similarly aided by the outward pressure of water in the silo. The section shows shows the longitudinal seal (i) The bases of the silos are semi-columnar structures and are continuous with the silo above providing support for it and are scalloped so as to allow the free ingress of water to the inter-silo pump mechanisms. These too are segmented in construction in the manner of the silo described above -however this is not shown figuratively.

According to the invention the scalloping of the columnar structure of the silo bases not only allows ingress of water to feed the wind pumps but also allows the tidal flow and wave action of water around the atoll to flow through the whole base structure of the atoll (fig. 8).

According to the invention there are, further to the wind driven pumps, a pump mechanism that is activated both by tidal flow and wave action and these are situated preferably in the bases of those silos on the perimeter of the atoll.

As described above this pump mechanism consists of round floating drums not only able to ascend and descend vertically but also to freely rotate on a vertical axle fixed and concentric with and under the silo, and which stabilises and fixes those drums against lateral motion. The rise and fall of the drum with the wave action actuates water pump(s) which will fill the silos with sea water besides the wind driven pumps.

As well, the invention also provides that these drums are fitted at their periphery with cusps or curved blades appropriately orientated to capture the energy from the flow of tidal water directed to them and thus causing the drums to rotate. This rotary action thence actuates water pump(s) which also fills the silos.

Thus the drums will, through the action of rise and fall and rotation, be able to capture and store the energy from the wave and tidal surge of the sea. The silos that these two pump mechanisms fill are the general silos discussed earlier (figs. 3b). The exits for sea water from these pumps are seen in fig. 10, (i). The silos housing those pumps are the peripheral ones, and are for containing fresh water as a part of the fresh water reservoir system as discussed previously.

Overflow from the silos when they are full is resolved through an overflow conduit directing surplus to the central generating unit whence it can contribute directly to the grid. Alternately, as the silos interconnect, the overflow in one can be accommodated in any of the others by adjusting the valves at their interconnections and any overflow after that will simply return from them to the sea via the central generating unit in the usual way or the overflow can be dumped directly. into it (fig.14).

According to the invention an array of concrete walls sited on the seabed and radiating from the atoll's periphery may need to be provided and will be arranged to lie so as to direct the best of the known tidal and prevailing wave forces into the scalloped bases of the peripheral silos and thence on and into the drum pump mechanisms (fig. 15).

According to the invention the confluent tops of the silos will provide a surface on which solar power panels may be placed to capture solar energy which will be added to, and may be utilised in the manner of, that from the central generating unit, ie directed to the national grid.

The invention provides that the confluent tops are so joined or connected and channelled so that rain water is directed for collection in the silos at the periphery of the atoll and which are dedicated to or specifically for storage of fresh water and for outsourcing this as necessary. The use of solar panels as described need not preclude or interfere with their surfaces being a part of the catchment area for rain collection.

Though it has been mentioned above that generally the preferred shape of the strucure is, in footprint, circular (figs. 1,4) with a high central generating silo surrounded with concentric circles of feeding silos and sloping down and outwards to the waters edge, which being circular, encompasses all the directions of wind, wave and tide that can occur as in fig. 1, the invention embraces the concept that the shape must subserve the prevailing local knowledge of the wind, tide and wave conditions. Thus instead of having a circular footprint it could be crescentic or arrowhead in shape (fig. 2) or even linear,with the central generating silo placed most conveniently amongst its feeding silos so as to be drained into quickly from them.

According to the invention the atoll', as with the potential of any island and added here only by way envisaging the completed structure, will be provided with landing facilities and access for operating and maintenance staff, with appropriate quarters for such staff. Specifically, however, it is envisaged that such quarters might indeed be above the machinery in the central generating silo. The invention envisages provision for the landing of supplies, service engineers and sightseeing visitors, and appropriate walkways for the safety of all.

As discussed elsewhere the atoll can accommodate the water pumped from wind, wave and tide mechanisms outside itself in the surrounding sea or on nearby land. Figure 6.(iii) show this, where the mechanisms are wind turbines and the pipe connections are preferably lying on the sea bed.

Legend to the diagrams Fig. 1 Image of the invention as an atoll' in heavy weather as viewed from a passenger plane Fig. 2 The invention allows of many shape and sizes to accommodate the particular vicissitudes of wind and tide -here five different plans or footprints' are shown; round, elliptical, arrow head, crescentic and bi-concave -which relate to the disposition of the silos to each other and, at the centre' and apex of each, a central generating silo Fig. 3 The three silo types; (a) the central generating silo, (b) the general pump and storage silo -the pump at its base is shown with the connecting rods to the pure wind turbines on top as a dotted line, (c) the fresh water silo with part of its wave and tide pump mechanism visible through the scalloped base Fig. 4 (a) Vertical section through a silo complex showing cylindrical nature of its components with the specialised central generating and peripheral fresh water silos cross-hatched. (w) represents an anabatic wind flowing up and over it. (b) Horizontal section at xx' above showing the honey comb effect of the silo complex Fig.5 (a) A general pump and storage silo in action and showing the pump connecting rod (i) (b) A cross section of the tri-stellate inter-silo space canying the pump connecting rod (i) and a variety of conduits Fig. 6 A landscape view of the atoll' showing (i) breakwater guides to direct the tide and waves into (ii) the scalloped base or inlet to the peripheral silos (iii) wind turbines outside the atoll contributing to the water head by pumping water via a seabed pipeline Fig. 7 A peripheral silo where (a) rainwater directed across the overlapping lids of the higher and more central silos is being collected (b) a drum with foils on its outer, that can slide on a spindle fixed in the base, is free to rotate with the tide, and rise and fall with wave action, both actions activating a common mechanism (not shown) which pumps sea water into the ajacent silo(s) Fig. 8 Views to show how the scalloped base of all the silo allows flow underneath the bottoms of all the silos and the inter-silo spaces -colored grey in cross-section xx' Fig. 9 (a) Plan view with section to show effect of the tide on the foils (b).

View to show the drum, with its foils, sliding on a fixed spindle (i), on the trough and crest of a wave similtaneously continuing to rotate from the effect of tide on the foils Fig. 10 This shows the drum(iv), with its foils, free to slide up and down on the fixed spindle (cross-hatched) from the vertical component of the wave action and thus acting on the pistons(iii) to pump water into a chamber above, thence out at (i).Also being free to rotate from the effect of the tide over the foils, and also from a horizontal component of the wave action, the drum does exactly that, and the cam lifts (ii) on the uppersurface of the drum convert that rotation to a lifting force on the same pistons with the same result at (i) Fig. 11 (a) This shows a cross-section of a hypothetical alternative to round silos -the hexagonal sections are positioned to offer an inter-silo space (i) an important feature for conduits, servicing etc -however it is clear that the abutment of adjacent silos is point to point and therefore not sound. Other sections can provide an inter-silo space but this and great strength is provided by the round section as shown at (ii). (c) The inter-silo space of round silos is blown up to show a maintenance person (i) inspecting the silo walls and the state of the conduits -an important bonus from their presence Fig. 12 The silo abutments at their tops, and with their overlying lids, offer very conveniently strong purchase points for the frames to support the pure wind turbines, and if a silo is completely surrounded by other silos there is the choice of six positions. All these positions lie, again conveniently over the intersilo space -connecting rods (i) can be seen descending into them from the back of the turbines.

Fig. 13 Building the silos by assembling segments is demonstrated here c vertical overlapping interdigitation of concrete segments, held in position externally by metal bands d (iii) in tranverse recesses d (iv).

Vertical and horizontal seal detail is shown as (i) and (ii) in a and b and the lower half of a show a segment being removed internally without disturbing the abuting or adjacent silos.

Fig. 14 This shows mechanisms for coping with overflow, the most useful being its diversion to the central generating silo (i) directly as indicated through the two dotted conduit options (ii) on the left side of the completely full silo. The controllable valved connection (iii) at the bottom and between the two allows flow from one to another and equalises them. Another option is to let it waste into the sea through a conduit into the base of the silo (iv). Also flow between the two silos can occur at the top connection(v) Fig. 15 This shows detail at the periphery of a silo complex. Narrow guides (i), of breakwater strength and attached to the silos and the sea floor, aid in directing tidal flow and waves into the silo inlet and the cusps or foils on the drum therein. These can just be seen through the inlet (ii). A part of the array of the silo lids covering the whole surface of the atoll' can be seen (iii) Fig. 16 This shows an alternative to the wind turbines actuating pumps in the base of the silo (the preferred pump situation as seen in (fig. 5a).

Here the pumps (ii) are attached close to the wind turbines (i), lifting water via conduits (iii) from the base and filling from the top (iv).

Seemingly inefficient, this variation may however compensate in allowing easy servicing of those pumps.

Claims (6)

1. Claims In the following, the use of the word structure' relates to the whole mechanism of the invention of which the silo component is but a part. The words cylinder' and silo' are interchangeable and mean the same item; silo however having an inflexion of common usage that most conjures up the special disposition intended i.e. of a closed vertical cylinder meant for storage.1 A structure formed from a collection of a number, which is variable, of very large vertical interconnecting cylinders or silos for the support and housing of appropriately placed machinery for the purpose of harvesting energy from wind, wave and tide, and which is also for the support and housing of appropriately placed pumps for the purpose of conversion of that energy into a head of water, for the storage of that head of water, and for the support and housing of appropriately placed hydro-electric generating equipment for the purpose of producing hydro-electricity from that head of water, all at the one site and all part of that same structure wherein the structure contains the machinery for these purposes and which are wind turbines, specialised drums or flotation tanks to harvest the energy of the waves and tide on which they sit, water pumps and hydro-electric generators wherein the different presence of these various machineries on or and in a silo presents a family of three basic types of silo that in varying numbers make up the structure (fig. 3) but where there is scope for different combinations wherein the lower end of the silos sit on a bases of the same diameter which support them on and connect them to the sea bed, which are of a segmented and columated construction so as to be scalloped or fenestrated in a manner to allow the water in which they stand to flow freely through and around them wherein the structure is sited on the sea bed totally surrounded by water or in a coastal position where it is at least partially surrounded by water, emerging from the water to stand, at its centre, a great height above the water and presenting, in its larger forms, the dimensions and an appearance akin to a substantial mountainous islet or small island and where its margins at the water's edge are vertically raised by the presence of its silos, but thereafter sloping upwards to a raised central plateau, and whose whole sky-facing surface is available for the support and placement of wind turbines (figs. 1,4,6) wherein such cylinders are closed at their lower ends so as to contain a head of water therein until it its purposely released wherein such cylinders have the potential to be connected, as necessary, by pipework, to the output of water pumped by mechanisms activated by wind, wave, tide or other mechanisms which are not in house' within the structure, but lie in the surrounding sea or on nearby land for the purpose of accommodating that output as a head of water wherein such cylinders as are provided for are of sizes varying from tens to hundreds of metres high, tens of metres wide and ranging in capacity up to many millions of litres wherein there is provision for these cylinders to be secured at their lower end to the sea-bed floor, or other such sound foundation at a site where there is an unlimited or immense supply or source of water as in a sea, ocean or a coastal site, and in such a way that they are adjacent to, and secured to each other so as to be mutually supportive of each other and so that collectively they will stand vertically out of the water for most of their length and which are interconnected at their bases so water contained inside them can flow freely from one to the other, to provide a multi-chambered structure which can act, by virtue of such interconnections, effectively as a single though physically sectioned or partitioned store of water wherein at such interconnections valves are placed so flow from one cylinder to another can be controlled.
2. 2 A structure as in Claim 1 wherein the silos are built out of preformed segments, ideally of cement, and of an interlocking design and in a manner by which those segments can be inserted or removed internally i.e. that is into the space the cylinders encompass, as might be required for construction, repair, replacement, or demolition and thus in this manner not cause interference with either the integrity of the surrounding cylinders or the function of the structure as a whole.
3. 3 A structure as in Claim 1 wherein the upper ends of the cylinders are capped at their upper ends so as to provide a continuous platform which will support and house pure wind turbines and the machinery to connect these to water pumps in the bases of the cylinders, from whence the pumps will scavenge water from below the sea level which is surrounding the bases of the cylinders and underneath them, and pump it inside the cylinders to create a head of water, and where such connecting machinery as reciprocating or rotating rods may reach the pumps via the cylinders themselves or through the tri-stellate spaces between the cylinders.
4. 4 A structure as in Claim 3 wherein the caps of the silos form a continuous essentially flat platform over the silos, either by edge to edge apposition or overlapping each other, so that rain water can flow off them in a downhill manner to those silos at the periphery of the group structure which has its container or collective component dedicated to the collection of fresh water.
5. A structure as in Claim 4 where inside and underneath the containing lower ends or bottoms of those silos at the periphery are housed machinery for harnessing wave and tidal energy including pumps to convert this energy into a head of water in nearby or adjacent silos.
6. 6 A structure as in Claim 4 where the machinery for capturing the energy from wave and tide and using that energy to pump water into the silo system is a single mechanism wherein there is a cylindrical flotation drum, free to rotate and hIe up and down on a vertical shaft fixed in the base of the silo, and Jhkh has cusps or foils on it periphery whereby the horizontal flow from tide and wave causes the drum to rotate and whereby the vertical component of the wave causes the drum to rise and fall (fig. 9) wherein there is there is housed beneath the silos' bottom but above the drum a reciprocating pump which is activated by the expanded ends of its piston rods impinging on a circular area on the top of the drum which has equally spaced concentric lifts' or raised and depressed sections around its circumference so as to perform a cam lift effect on the impinging piston rod end (fig. 10 (ii)) whereby rotation of the drum will allow the piston to rise and fall and the ascent and descent of the drum will similarly cause the pistons rise and fall both drum actions activating the pump resulting in water around the entrance of the valve in the cylinder around the piston being sucked in and pumped into a nearby silo (fig. 10 (i)) 7 A structure as in Claim 1 wherein the disposition of the silos to each other in terms of height is such that when there are large numbers of silos forming the structure (many silos so as to form a silo complex) there is sufficient a down-hill gradient from the central silo (s) to the periphery, to ensure rain water moves over the surface of their caps to those silos at the edge of the group dedicated to its collection.8 A structure as in Claim 1 wherein the gradient from the higher central silo(s), when there is a large group of these, as is preferable, slopes downward toward the peripheral ones in a degree and manner such that the gradient so created, and which may be curved, aids in wind arriving at the periphery to be directed over the surface slopes of the continuous covering of the silos in a manner that will accelerate its passage up and over those slopes in the manner of an anabatic wind and into the wind turbines mounted thereon.9 A construction as in the preceding claims in which all the silos, except those at the periphery which are dedicated to collecting fresh water, are connected to the central generating silo(s) so that their water contents by way of their water head can be directed to that silo(s).A structure as in the Claim 1 and 7 wherein the most central silo(s) are dedicated to housing hydro-electric generating plant, incorporating therein the monitoring equipment and mechanisms for controlling the power output and the flow of water to it from the other silos and wherein may be contained also maintenance and repair equipment.