That is certainly the commitment I am making to myself and those of you that will join me in this effort.

Let’s create 50% of our planets energy from the flow of water.

Joe Terry, Founder
VIVES
January MMX

Vortex Induced Vibration Energy Systems (VIVES) is a concept for a business that I am proposing as an Open Source Business (OSB) as opposed to the more familiar concept of Open Source Software (OSS).

It’s clear to me now that I will need the support of many professional services and experts in various fields business, engineering, legal and political that would be daunting for anyone to pull together, let alone someone that has my experience or lack thereof in launching a business of this magnitude.

So, for once in my life, I’m going to start a project by asking for help. I’m going to focus on my strengths, vision and leadership, and let the idea grow on it’s on merits.

At some point, we might take VIVES private and proprietary, but it’s clear to me, at this point, in my life and the life of this concept that open source, open business ( OSOB ) is the best strategy available to me.

So, as of the time of this writing, I’m establishing a project at SourceForge.net for the technical, legal and other digital documents that comprise the project VIVES.

This blog will be for public comment and publicity and I look forward to your input.

Thanks!

Joe Terry, Founder
VIVES
January MMIX

My name is Joe Terry.

I’m a local businessman in Hermosa Beach, CA with a vision for environmentally sustainable energy production. I count myself as a businessman first and a tree-hugger second in the vein of T. Boone Pickens and “The Pickens Plan”.

I’m proposing to install water current-flow energy recovery systems around the world in Ocean and river front locales which have a minimal impact on the local ecology and can have tremendously positive impacts on the local economies. A primary target globally will be the recovery of river eco-systems to their natural state and the removal of existing dams while increasing energy output for towns and cities all along these rivers that once where dammed.

The proposed project must make economic sense or it’s environmental impact is moot. This project must be able to be replicated in other communities and locales worldwide or as a scientific experiment it loses it’s power to add knowledge to the system and inform greater projects and progress in the future.

With the economic upheaval globally and the environmental and national security implications of energy independence here at home in America, it’s clear, I believe all forward looking energy companies should be looking hard, very hard at new innovative solutions to providing energy that are renewable, carbon-neutral or that at least provide significant reductions in carbon emissions over common power generation technologies of today, and of course are sustainably profitable in the future.

I am proposing such a technology pilot project … Not solar or wind … in it’s infancy, but with a very bright future partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research in the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory at the University of Michigan … with supporting scientific evidence and investigation going back 500 years … an initial installation including a public/private partnership with local governments … in a high value … densely populated area … with tremendous PR potential.

Just entering into preliminary talks with local partners, business and government, about this project and providing a platform for community discussion and very limited funding for a feasibility study, I believe, would reflect very positively on AES and bring dividends not easily attainable any other way.

The Technology
==============

VIVACE (Vortex Induced Vibrations Aquatic Clean Energy)

VIVACE is a novel approach to extracting energy from flowing water currents. It is unlike any other ocean energy or low-head hydropower concept. VIVACE is based on the extensively studied phenomenon of Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV), which was first observed 500 years ago by Leonardo DaVinci in the form of “Aeolian Tones.” For decades, engineers have been trying to prevent VIV from damaging offshore equipment and structures. By maximizing and exploiting VIV rather than spoiling and preventing it, VIVACE takes this ‘problem’ and transforms it into a valuable resource for mankind.

The genius behind this power generation technology, as with all great innovations, is that this is an extensively studied and understood phenomenon … very familiar to engineers of bridges over waterways and engineers of oil platforms in the oceans of the world.

VIVACE turns that extensive research on it’s head and uses these perturbations for any “bluff body” in a viscous fluid into a technique to extract energy … but of even greater interest is that this energy extraction can occur at high efficiencies at low flow rates … as low as 1.5 knots … most ocean currents flow below 3 knots.

Of course many streams and rivers also flow at low speeds and have thus been considered low probability targets for energy generation … save the extremely destructive process of dam building. VIVACE directly refutes this logic. Slow moving streams and rivers can be excellent sources of electrical energy production. Ocean currents can be enormous generators supporting multi-megawatt installations, in theory.

One other advantage to ocean current power generation installations is that they produce power 24/7. Ocean currents never cease. Ever. This one feature, again, sets ocean current power generation apart from wind, solar and geothermal.

The Proposal
============

As you may be aware, AES, has a Natural Gas fired power generation plant in Redondo Beach, CA. This plant which is already feeding the local power grid here in Southern California and is an ideal location for a green, ocean-based, power generation technology pilot project.

Our expectations are that AES will fund a feasibility study and host design conferences for the project in Redondo Beach, CA and Arlington, VA.

We expect to attract initial build out seed capital from environmental groups such as The Sierra Club, as an investment, and more traditional sources, once the enormous potential of the technology is clear.

Private local environmental groups would be very supportive and local governments may be persuaded to provide assistance in the form of long term 20 to 40 year contracts to utilize the electrical generation potential of the pilot and built-out projects and in return receive a fixed rate per kilowatt for the duration of the contract.

These kinds of funding mechanisms are working all over the country with commercial solar installations and this would simply be a matter of scale, many orders of magnitude larger.

In a nutshell, there is a population of perhaps 150,000 homes, here in the South Bay of Southern California, whose local governments and local civic groups, could be supporting this initiative.

The national political fallout could be just as positive. It is clear that alternative energy will be a boom marketplace for many, many years to come. Barack Obama’s commitment to building a green economy will most certainly seek out projects, such as this one, to become examples and hopefully recipients of federal tax incentives and other supports.

AES North America & Wind Generation is already committed to a renewable energy future. I am simply proposing that we discuss, at length, the possibility of taking an existing 20th Century power generation facility and try something extraordinary.

I hope this email hasn’t been too long or boring. I sometimes cannot contain my enthusiasm for this technology or it’s potential or frankly the economic possibilities of power generation from the ocean.

All power comes from the sun. Ocean energy is a big brother technology to the solar photovoltaic industry that has in many ways already transformed the economy of Germany.

I predict that ocean current energy production will dwarf the impact that solar has had so far on global economies, in the next 20 years. It’s abundant, reliable around the clock, renewable, carbon-free, low maintenance and … I believe, profitable.