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For Chernobyl survivor, breaking the waves to power the future is 'personal'
发布时间：2017-02-25 22:49 作者：admin 次数：次
By Catherine Armitage
"What's your passion?" a stranger asked Inna Braverman at a pool party.
To his astonishment, her passion was not just obscure, he shared it. "Wave energy," she said.
It turned out they'd both been noodling about in the scientific literature for clues on how to catch the power of ocean waves for electricity in an eco-friendly and inexpensive way. Except she'd given up, because "I was not an engineer and I didn't have the money and I didn't have the contacts", Ms Braverman said.
But that poolside conversation with David Leb, a businessman with multinational interests, solved two out of three problems. In partnership and with hired engineers they came up with a technology that converts wave power to electricity with floaters attached to onshore structures such as breakwaters or jetties. It's taking off for their Israeli company Eco Wave Power, with projects in Gibraltar, Mexico, Chile and China.
Inna Braverman wants to harness the waves and is doing so at Eco Wave Power plant in Gibraltar.CREDIT:WOLTER PEETERS
Ms Braverman is hoping Australia will be next. If so, our coastline could soon be transformed by wave converters hanging off breakwaters, jetties, wharves and piers, alongside the rods and legs of hopeful fishermen."
Australia is definitely an amazing market for wave energy. We have been looking at it for quite a long time. You have great waves for that", said Ms Braverman, who was in Sydney with the largest-ever delegation of Israeli companies accompanying Benjamin Netanyahu on the first visit to Australia by an incumbent Israeli prime minister.
Ms Braverman was born in Ukraine in the fallout zone within two weeks of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. As a baby she nearly died of a seizure due to chronic respiratory illness caused by the meltdown; she was saved by mouth to mouth resuscitation from her mother. To her, that makes the quest for safe, renewable energy "personal". "All my life kind of accidentally led me to this field," she said.
In 2012 a CSIRO report predicted that by 2050, wave energy could contribute up to 11 per cent of Australia's electricity, enough to power a city the size of Melbourne. Strong winds from the Southern Ocean generate a "large consistent swell" and "ideal conditions for wave energy production". Australia is "fortunate enough to have much of the world's best resource along its southern coastlines", the CSIRO said.
Australia is definitely an amazing market for wave energy. We have been looking at it for quite a long time. You have great waves for that", said Ms Braverman, who was in Sydney with the largest-ever delegation of Israeli companies accompanying Benjamin Netanyahu on the first visit to Australia by an incumbent Israeli prime minister.
Ms Braverman was born in Ukraine in the fallout zone within two weeks of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. As a baby she nearly died of a seizure due to chronic respiratory illness caused by the meltdown; she was saved by mouth to mouth resuscitation from her mother. To her, that makes the quest for safe, renewable energy "personal". "All my life kind of accidentally led me to this field," she said.
In 2012 a CSIRO report predicted that by 2050, wave energy could contribute up to 11 per cent of Australia's electricity, enough to power a city the size of Melbourne. Strong winds from the Southern Ocean generate a "large consistent swell" and "ideal conditions for wave energy production". Australia is "fortunate enough to have much of the world's best resource along its southern coastlines", the CSIRO said.
