When Adriana and I were walking in, between some of the side events last week, there was a whole section of little booth type kiosks, where individual organizations, institutions, and countries could grab a space and present or show whatever they pleased; oddly enough, that is where America's unofficial representation was set up. Adriana and I stopped by one of those booths and spoke with Tara Massoudi, who is head of business development for CCell, which is a technology, made and deployed by the company Zyba.
CCell is Zyba’s core product and is branded as a curved wave energy converter that moves with the waves, to simultaneously extract their energy and reduce their impact on the beach. CCell is easily implementable because it is efficient, light, and has really quite simple parts, that are easy to assemble and operate. The only downside to the CCell technology is that it does require maintenance, which can prove to be cumbersome over time, because the CCells are mainly underwater.
This CCell technology is combined, in tandem, with Zyba’s other technology, BioRock. “BioRock reefs” are what Zyba creates and BioRock reefs are wire mesh frames, that can be built to any shape or size desired. The steel frame is secured to the seabed, and then a safe, low voltage electrical charge runs through it, in the process facilitating limestone rock growth, via the minerals in the seawater. In conjunction, these two technologies are used as a mitagor to beach erosion, so much so, that they not only prevent erosion, but replenish beaches at the same time. The BioRock was shown to accelerate the growth rate for corals by 500%. In addition, corals were 20 times more resilient to environmental stressors.
From the insight that I gained with Tara, I can say that these technologies are great in your head or on paper, but when it comes to actual implementation, there can be better alternatives, and the small start up is having trouble gaining traction. But, ultimately it depends on what your purpose would be for implementing the technology. If you are the leader of a small caribbean country, and you are looking for a source of clean energy to convert your country to, solar is a much better option. It is cheaper, requires far less maintenance, and the implementation is much easier, not to mention the energy able to be harnessed is much greater. The CCell technology harnesses energy, but the tides can be inconsistent and the energy harnessed is not as great as solar. On the other hand, if you're a coastal country and your coral reefs are a large attraction of the tourist economy, and sadly they are all dying off due to climate change, CCell and BioRock technologies could be a useful tool to protect and regrow the reefs and the nation's economy in turn. BioRock technology is cool because, as I mentioned, it can be made into any shape, since it is just steel beams. BioRocks can be great, not only for stimulating undersea growth and generating clean energy, but it can also provide great new dive locations, bringing in tourists and revenue to a country’s economy.
We will see how CCell is developed in the future, and to what lengths it is implemented. I found this technology interesting, which is why I wrote about it. If you thought it was interesting too, do not hesitate to click on some of the things I linked or to do some googling of your own.
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