Within the past two decades the renewable energy scene has tried to get established in the public opinion and in political awareness. That does not mean that all the results achieved can be qualified as final. By far it is not. The opposition against RE is incredible strong and obliges the RE-family to act concertedly, inter-coordinated and convinced.
Sometimes there happens a mad discussion on which one of the RE sources is old or new. Reportedly the “new” are more attractive. In fact everybody should be proud of the fact that all sources can be named “old”. And they really are. Age proofs the quality of the source having survived centuries. Of course the technology of exploitation has changed sometimes significantly but that’s a complete different story.
Speaking about Ocean Energy sounds “modern”. That’s not correct because more than 200 years ago, exactly in 1799 a first patent was taken out by father & son GIRARD in Paris. They got the idea of a gigantic lever with its fulcrum on the shore and its “body” floating on the sea. The patent specification completes that this kind of installation “could directly be applied to pumps, to bucket wheels, to saws, to mills, to hammers….
Seen from the SHP point of view its exactly the same range of application as being well known from the very beginnings of SHP.
The second part of the story happens about five decades later in 1854. The same actors as in 1799 issued another patent. The invention was a turbine, the so-called GIRARD – turbine. To conclude – GIRARD was a hydropower pioneer and both of his ideas had significant influence on further development. One may say he is the proof that OE and SHP are mentally connected which is of course the fact.
