Investing Daily

When you hear about alternative energy or renewables, most people immediately conjure images of solar panels, wind turbines, fuel cells and batteries. The one image that doesn’t usually pop up right away is water, or hydro energy.

Perhaps it’s because we’ve been using hydro energy for so long that is doesn’t seem like a new, hip way to derive even more energy. Alternatively, there are plenty of folks who see the consequences of damming once-powerful rivers and the long-term environmental and commercial costs associated with it.

Well, there’s a new world of hydro, and it’s already being used in places. There’s wave energy, tidal energy, current energy and a number of other variants that are being used to tap into the extant power of the earth’s most abundant resource.

Not surprisingly, the UK has been a leader in new hydro technologies. But there are also companies in the US and Canada that are hard at work developing systems to harness river currents, tidal shifts and ocean energy.

The advantage some of these new hydro projects promise is that unlike wind and solar, water doesn’t stop shining or blowing. Some early tidal energy projects were limited to big tidal shifts that meant you could only gather power about 10 hours a day. But new technologies can take advantage of more subtle tidal shifts that allow hydro energy capture almost constantly since most tidal waters are in a constant state of flux.

Smart tech investors should start to learn about these new systems, become familiar with the players and keep an eye out for these generally private companies landing contracts with far-sighted publicly traded power companies. ScottishPower, now owned by Spanish energy player Iberdrola (Spain: IBE), is a major player in wave energy technology. And Iberdrola is a significant global alt energy player along with fellow Spanish energy player Abengoa (Spain: ABG).

Below is an introduction to some of the technologies that are currently deployed or are soon to be deployed in a water system near you.

• The University of Michigan is working on its Vivace system that sits on the bed of a river or ocean and derives energy from the vortices that fish use to maximize their swimming power.

• Pelamis is a UK company that has developed wave power generators (Sea Snakes) that can be plugged into the grid; it has a huge project underway with ScottishPower.

• Finavera (TSX: FVR) is a publicly traded Canadian company that’s deployed its AquaBuOY 2.0 for wave energy projects in Canada, the US and South Africa.

• Verdant Power is working on three separate technologies--water turbines, kinetic hydropower and tidal energy--with an ongoing project in New York City’s East River.

• AWS Ocean Energy is a Scotland/UK firm using an underwater buoy called the Archimedes Waveswing to generate power from wave energy; it has a pilot project operating in Portugal.

• Alternative Energy News has some great graphics and general information on various ways to tap into tidal energy as well as some other great information on alt energy tech.