DISASTER RECOVERY & GREEN TECH “GUTCHECK” IN THE TIME OF COVID:
IT HASN’T CHANGED MUCH – JUST EVERYTHING!
Hello, I am Chuck Keys, CEO of Wave Water Works, and owner of Keys2Business, with the Oscillo Drive. I am going to talk about Disaster Recovery through the lens of green technology, one year into COVID 19 -- a phenomenon that has rocked our entire world. Nothing like a pandemic to stress test our emergency contingency plans, right? COVID has completely redefined the phrase “Worst Case Scenario”.
The impact of COVID-19 has caused businesses of all sizes to reevaluate how they work and what they are doing. Disaster recovery businesses and non-profits alike have had to re-evaluate and re- invent the way they view survival – from both a business and literal sense.
We are all struggling to do more with less funding, less staff, less jobs, lots of restrictions and dramatically different means of communication and interaction.
Frighteningly, this may become our new normal.
Wave Water Works has been no exception to this phenomenon.
While COVID has changed much, there are a great many things that have not changed at all or have worsened. Disaster areas used to be created from an “Act of God” event. Flooding and non-potable, fetid drinking water created by a hurricane; demolished shelters created or added to impoverished living conditions. Now, some of these situations are never resolved between climate and other disaster events: they have become the norm. Add to this situation, the reality that COVID has disproportionately negatively affected these areas and populations.
Among the many factors that has been exacerbated by the pandemic, one challenge is always at the top of the list. I am talking about Water Insecurity, especially amongst the poorest of communities.
While we are aware this is a life-threatening condition that develops in times of a natural disaster, we can predict that this is becoming a fact of everyday life because it is not resolved after devastating natural disasters. Furthermore, it perpetuates the destruction and negatively impacts the livability of our planet.
The aftermath of disaster that befell Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Caribbean has offered us many Lessons Learned in the dilemma of getting power and clean water to an emergency area.
We learn that two years after the hurricane’s initial damage, emergency bottled water drops that somehow went awry were discovered recently warehoused only to be toxic and useless. And in single-use plastic containers that only add to environmental pollution.
All of us here at the ADR conference are charged with the awesome responsibility of saving lives and creating a basic environment for survival. We are businesses, governments, educators, and non-profits—all looking for guidance and synergy. Whether devastation has come about through the impact of war, terrorism, or through natural or manmade disaster, a decimated infrastructure without clean water will not sustain life.
In Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA, Mr. Phil Padula -- a lifelong inventor and founder of Wave Water Works -- has paid attention to the increased pollution, climate change and extreme weather for 40 years. Our motto is “doing the impossible every day”. Padula’s intent is to “clean this place up”.
To combat some these effects, he invented the Oscillo Drive. The Oscillo Drive is a small, portable, flexible device that can generate power from water so it can:
- Movethe water,
- Powerthe cleaning or desalinating of the water, or
- Storepower like a battery / generator
It can do so on waves as small as 6 inches without massive, long- lead time infrastructure creation. A cloudy day or lack of wind will not affect it. Deployment is as easy a helicopter or ship bringing a barge to a stricken coastline, lake, or ocean, to which the drives are mounted. Since 71% of Earth is water, this is a strategy that works for most nations.
Additionally, the Oscillo Drive ensures we are not trading one problem for another, as diesel generators do.
We must clean the water without polluting the air or creating atmospheric and geological damage, such as gravel pits left from coal mines. We cannot build on top of that, leaving less space for our expanding populations.
There are many energy products, including numerous other wave power devices. There are other types of energy creators, such as wind or solar. And they may be more efficient in a long- term restoration scenario.
However, none rival the Oscillo Drive in terms of its nimble flexibility and short time from “zero to sixty” implementation in a disaster situation. This is not the first piece of technology to harness wave energy: Wave energy has been exploited for the past 100 years.
To date, there are over 1000 wave energy-into-electricity conversion technologies patented in Japan, North America, and Europe since 1910. The reason for so much interest in wave energy conversion is easy to explain:
- Itis one of the most reliable forms of clean energy in existence,
- Itis also the most predictable form of clean energy, surpassing wind and solar,
- Itis less expensive than wind or solar, and
- Ithas no negative impact to the
However, this is the point of divergence for the Oscillo Drive.
All wave harvesting designs have different conversion mechanisms but share the same goal: Transfer the wave energy into a generator and produce electricity. These other systems are large and robust for continuous power generation for large scale systems. These systems also have high manufacturing lead time cycles, are expensive and have high maintenance costs.
The Oscillo device is a modern design for power generation, with a focus on continuous or non-continuous generation of power. Made of recyclable parts, the Oscillo Drive can store the captured wave power in a mechanical capacitor. This power can later be transferred to a generator, under optimal conditions. As Inventor Phil Padula says, “Everybody is looking for electricity. I just want power.”
Power, simply put, is the enabler for a self-sustaining platform which can provide an array of options.
When Oscillo Drives are affixed to a platform like a barge, the creation of clean water can be done on one side and making compressed air to create an air filter (to clear away contaminated air – like after 9/11) on the other. It can noiselessly power the cleaning of air, the power of cleaning or desalinating the water, the power to move the water, and generate heat or cold.
Oscillo Drives can be “right-sized” to order – creating a larger or smaller Oscillo Drive in accordance with its output goals. Accountability and effectiveness are also features, because input and output can be monitored and controlled when the device has internet connectivity.
Oscillo Drive maintenance is nimble and quick. Using a “plug and play” strategy, an ineffective drive and/or is simply swapped out with a replacement.
Using wave power to clean and filter water, one can manufacture instant clean water at the shoreline.
Also, by moving the water (from a barge to a higher place), you can hold it until you need power and then release it like a dam.
It only takes a 15 – 20-foot drop from a storage tower for later power conversion. It could also be pumped up to a storage container (such as a gulley or a man-made container) and then released for continuous, even flow.
Last year at the conclusion of my ADR 2020 Keynote Address, it was my pleasure to announce an exciting new partnership, the Wave Power Alliance with the Country of Brazil. Dr. Heber Silva and Dr. Alvero Ocheo were in Panama with me. And as I opened with today, COVID 19 has not changed much, just everything. We are very involved with our new global enterprise model -- our alliance with Brazil’s Federal Institute of Pernambuco (IFPE), the government of Brazil, the defense department, the university, private and public industry, and local governments.
However, as part of global shutdown of campuses and many businesses, IFPE shuttered their doors the month after our appearance here—one month before we were scheduled to ship our device. However, as I speak, two Oscillo Drives are on their way to IFPE.
Through this partnership, we agreed that the Wave Water Works Alliance would join with the University and the nation of Brazil to continuously advance the product through research and development. We will assist Brazil in creating a marketing center for Central and South America and the Caribbean, with all stakeholders receiving the benefit of an income stream from this endeavor. And after the devasting loss of jobs to the pandemic, governments and universities alike will be looking for creation of new industries – most especially in the sustainable green tech sector.
After last year’s conference, based on the ADR 2020 attendees’ responses and other experts, our future came into very clear focus.
The Oscillo Drive would be combined with other existing, proven technology to create a new twist on our business model to create a barge platform outfitted with Oscillo Drives. We worked to refine the concept into what we proudly today call THE GREEN LIFE RAFT.
The Green Life Raft is an integrated suite of products (such as solar, generators and the Oscillo Drive) that will (in a flood or other natural or manmade disaster) harness excess water to clean it, desalinate it, move, and transform it into power to recharge its own batteries and more.
It would come with a supplied base, either an inflatable raft or floatation platform (like a barge). It is affordable, renewable energy and self- contained— requiring very little lead time or infrastructure. It is not dependent on any infrastructure requirements, including power. It does not require any pre- or post- engineering or build-out other than assembly.
During this time of COVID, we got a taste of what we call “Brazilian Lemonade”: you know, there is a saying that when Life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
Our Director of Research, an Oakland University engineering grad and Brazilian resident, Hugo Pimentel, went home for a visit and got stuck there for the foreseeable future, caught in new pandemic-related travel and visa restrictions. We tasked him with research on complementary products for the Green Life Raft for a time. Here comes the Good News: Now the University (IFPE) we previously had a contractual relationship with has finally made plans to re-open. We explored the concept of doing ocean-related research in Brazil with our staff person’s involvement.
IFPE is re-opening their campus in March 2021 and we are happy to announce that due to our partnership, IFPE will commence research, testing and further validation in ocean conditions.
Back at home in Michigan – the Great Lakes State -- we are looking to exploit the strengths of the low-power Oscillo Drive on cleaning water (especially from problematic algae) and power creation.
While we are currently looking for locations to test a working model of The Green Life Raft on lakes and rivers, we are looking next to Central and South America, namely Chile and Colombia, to further advance our concept on oceans.
We encourage our fellow attendees today to think about a pre-emptive approach to disasters.” A pre-emptive strategy is cheaper and more effective than reacting post-event: And it saves lives. We know that Asia will have at least 2 tsunamis a year. We know when hurricane season is and what island nations and coastal states it will impact.
So, please consider a flotilla of Green Life Rafts in the Caribbean, creating a holding area and /or used permanently at that site.
If small nations or cooperative regions established trade agreements prior to the onset of a disaster event or on-going need, with similar geo- challenged profiles, local areas could be trained and empowered to resolve a climate or environmental event when they occur. This would transfer the authorized resources from National Level to Local Level, which we have heard from many regions and NGOs is a contributing issue.
Green Life Rafts could be stored or used permanently or airlifted to be a holding site where they can be deployed when and where needed next. Between disasters, they can create energy that could be stored for use wherever it is most needed or clean a source of water currently not potable. Since we have more power than we need in some areas, devices like the Oscillo Drive and the Green Life Raft can store energy and release it when needed. Let nations decide where and when it needs to go, maybe even continuously used in one place.
Establishing policies of cooperative technology-sharing, resources and costs between nations and NGOs could be leveraged more effectively.
Our goal has always been to bring together all resources we have at our command to address any problem. With our Green Life Raft model and strategic partnerships in South and Central America, and the Caribbean, we believe we can all contribute to a sustainable solution for disaster recovery and beyond.