Sri Lankan inventor develops world-class seawater energy generation unit
Sri Lanka has loads of creative talents capable of producing world-class innovations but one of the biggest challenges in harnessing such initiatives is that the country is slow in the field of patent rights.
Many inventors have faced this problem from the authorities and the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka and have been frustrated by the delay in knowing whether they would be given or not patent rights.
One such case is the wait for more than five years for a patent licence by the inventor behind the ‘Sea Bed Fracture Power Production System’.
Daya Senanayake, Chairman and Managing Director Blue Ocean Solar Ltd, is the inventor behind this perfectly environmentally friendly sea water power generation system. It is said to be the first in the world and according to him could supply energy at the cheapest possible price with such findings sure to shake the world. He received the patents only last November after having applied in December 2013. He said the electricity produced through his invention would cost only US$4 cents per megawatt hour. This irritating delay compelled Mr. Senanayake to submit his innovative invention details to the Australian Patent Office and they have issued a patent licence after a thorough investigation. It was only after that, that Sri Lanka issued patents for his product on the basis of the Australian licence.
Extremely disappointed at the attitude of the Sri Lankan Patent Office, Mr. Senanayake said: “I applied for patents from the Sri Lanka Patents office in December 2013. I could not get it. Finally I went to the Australian Patent Office. And got the examination done by them and the Australian Patent Office approved it. Then I sent those documents to the Sri Lankan Patents office.”
Mr. Senanayake told the Business Times last week that he has already signed a ‘Non-disclosure’ agreement with one of the biggest companies in Africa, Dangote Ltd based in Nigeria and they are now in the process of evaluating the technology to build the power generation plant in their existing off-shore fields.
There is 100 per cent possibility of acceptance and it would be a project for a 1,000 megawatt power plant with a capital cost of around $800 million.
Another project for a hotel resort island in the Maldives for a 100 megawatt, is awaiting Maldivian government approval.
The method involves using the heat flow in rocks below the sea-bed where at the core of the earth there is very high unimaginable temperature. The heat flows-up through the rocks in the earth’s mantle, sometimes goes up to 300 centigrade and even more, he indicated.
This heated water could be pumped up to a massive basin on the surface of the sea that can run generators to produce electricity. At the bottom of the basin a proportionately large tube is fixed and inside this tube turbines are fixed, submerged in the sea.
The heated water that is pumped up from the bottom of the sea to the basin is dispersed across the turbine which produces electric power. The power generated in these turbines could go up to even 5,000 megawatt, he said.
These rocks are all over the sea and the heat inside those rocks are in abundance to obtain any amount of energy.
He said that he has been involved in power generation since the 1990s and in 1995 won an international tender to produce 200 megawatt – solar chimney power plant in Rajasthan, India.
He said that once they handle the projects that would be awarded to them successfully they would be able to procure massive power supply orders throughout the world. He is now looking for large investors to collaborate with.
Many people who have submitted their inventions to the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka for patent rights, are compelled to wait for more than three years to obtain them.