A method and apparatus for generating electricity using a tidal stream impeller generator. The generator is a closed container, housing generators and related equipment in a non-flammable environment. The generator housing has affixed to it impeller blades, oriented to maximize the force captured from the movement of seawater with tides at depth. Tidal flow in seawater causes the housing and impeller blades rotate about a conduit, with the conduit serving as an axle as well as a conduit for cables, pipes, and related structures to enter the housing without breaching the watertight housing. The conduit passes through end caps on the housing, through watertight bearings. The rotation of the impeller provides the rotational energy for generators.

A wave energy converter incorporates a floating body and a reaction body engaging the floating body wherein the reaction body is static or oscillating out of phase relative to the floating body. A power take-off (PTO) has at least one direct drive linear generator, a high level controller responsive to sensors engaged to the direct drive linear generator and providing a PTO force change command (dF.sub.PTO) and a low level controller receiving the PTO force change command and providing control signals to power electronics connected to the direct drive linear generator. The direct drive linear generator is operable responsive to the control signals to achieve optimal power extraction performance with high force at low speed with operation in two physical directions and operating as both a motor and a generator for a total of four quadrants of control.

A system for harnessing wind energy to charge the electric storage battery of a vehicle, whether the vehicle is parked or in motion. While the vehicle is being driven, a roof-mounted, internal wind turbine harnesses wind energy and causes rotation of the shaft of an electric generator mounted to an interior surface of the roof. For charging the battery while the vehicle is parked, an external wind turbine is storable in the vehicle when not in use and attaches to the internal wind turbine. Cups of the kind used in cup anemometers are attached to radial arms that extend from an external shaft of the external wind turbine and catch ambient wind currents while the vehicle is parked, causing the external shaft and the generator shaft to rotate.

Methods, systems, and devices are disclosed for wave power generation. In one aspect, a wave power generator device includes a stator assembly and a rotor assembly encased within a tube frame. The stator assembly includes an array of inductor coils in a fixed position within a cavity of the tube frame and a plurality of bearings coupled to the tube frame. The rotor assembly includes a turbine rotor having a central hub and peripheral blades coupled to a high inertia annular flywheel that is moveably engaged with the bearings of the stator assembly, and an array of magnets arranged to be evenly spaced and of alternating axial polarity from one another extending from the annular flywheel into the cavity between the array of inductor coils, such that electric currents are produced based on magnetic field interaction of the magnets with the inductor coils during the rotation of the annular flywheel.

An electric generator longitudinally extends along a longitudinal axis between a drive end and an opposite non-drive end. The electric generator includes a stator having: a stator body including a stator yoke and a plurality of teeth protruding according to a radial direction orthogonal to the longitudinal axis from the stator yoke to respective tooth radial ends, each tooth extending longitudinally between the drive end and the non-drive end, a stator support for radially supporting the stator body, the stator support further providing an axial support to the stator body at the non-drive end, an end plate for axially supporting the stator body at one of the drive end or the non-drive end.

A generator device for generating an induced electrical power from the movement of a fluid stream. The generator device can include a circumferential casing that houses a stator, a power storage system and a power management system that receives the induced electrical power, and a propeller-rotor assembly located in the central opening of the casing and rotatably coupled to the casing. The propeller-rotor assembly has two or more propeller blades with distal ends opposite the axis of the propeller-rotor assembly to which magnets are attached. The device can also have a tether assembly for anchoring the generator device in a moving fluid stream and positioning the generator device so that the movement of fluid stream through the generator device causes the propeller-rotor assembly to rotate and, thereby, through interaction with the stator, to generate the induced electrical power. The generator device can be portable and easily deployed by a single user.

An apparatus for generating energy from ocean waves, the apparatus including a first or outer section arranged to be coupled to a sea floor and a second or inner section that is at least partially received by and slidably moveable within the first section. The first section includes a float housing arranged to be located toward or at a sea surface and an armature housing extending from the float housing toward the sea floor, the float housing having one or more apertures so that a water level within the float housing is substantially similar to or follows that of the sea surface. The second section includes a float slidably received by the float housing and a stem carrying a magnetic element that extends from the float so as to be receivable by the armature housing. The arrangement is such that the float travels in substantially vertical direction within the float housing in response to movement of the sea surface thereby the armature housing being moved relative to the magnetic element to generate energy.

A vertical axis wind turbine system having a vertical mast with one or more turbine units supported thereon. The turbine units are of modular construction for assembly around the foot of the mast; are vertically moveable along the height of the mast by a winch system; and are selectively interlocking with the mast to fix the turbine units in parked positions. The turbine system and each turbine unit includes a network of portals and interior rooms for the passage of personnel through the system, including each turbine unit. The electrical generators, and other sub-components, in the turbine units are of modular construction that permits the selective removal and replacement of component segments, including the transport of component segments through the portals and interior rooms of the turbine system while the turbine units remain supported on the mast. The electrical generators are also selectively convertible between AC generators and DC generators.

A brake device for an AC generator, whose speed can be flexibly controlled, and can function properly even when functions of the control unit are lost.

The invention involves a power generation system. The system includes at least one power producing module having at least one hollow member. The at least one hollow member is filled with fluid. The system further comprises at least one conductive coil disposed over the at least one hollow member. The system further comprises at least one movable magnet disposed within the at least one hollow member and a magnetic flux field of the magnet is in contact with the conductive coil. The system is configured to generate energy when the magnetic flux field of the magnet passes through the conductive coil.