IBM Explores the Ocean's Motion to Increase Profit Margins

IBM, one of the greatest tycoons on the IT market, tries to simulate the growth of its profit margins while relying on innovative technology that will allow the company to turn the ocean's motion into actual electricity.

These devices are called wave energy converters and they are trying to provide safe, clean and sustainable power to companies worldwide, while exploiting the benefits of wave power.

Following the path described by Facebook and Google, IMB is now trying to manifest its care about the environment, while improving its eco-conscious conduct throughout IBM's Smarter Planet initiative, which will most likely pay off, bringing millions of dollars to the company's budget.

In order to develop this innovative technology, experts have to take care of the noise problem, one of the most significant bumps in the road determined so far.

The sound made by these machines while functioning has a considerable impact upon ecosystems, since it manages to perturb the activity of dolphins, and whales population which communicate relying on sound waves.

The biggest problem is that sound travels in water five times faster than it does through air, managing to reach farther.

Therefore, before showcasing their latest underwater turbines that convert tide motion into energy, experts will have to deal with this issue.

One of the researchers, Jim Thomson, an assistant professor in the department of environmental fluid dynamics at the University of Washington, says that the present situation appears hard to improve so far, due to short-term-based projects and lack of funds.

IMB and Sustainable Energy Ireland innovation might provide an actual change, since their project is expected to collect massive amount of information regarding the ocean-noise, in real-time analysis.

Such an innovative technology will most likely allow the further development of machines which transform wave power into energy, making clean, safe energy competitive with its fossil-fuel rivals.

It appears that experts think that the solution provided by IMB has a lot of potential.

"There's going to be a whole industry that crops up around it that's in support of it, that doesn't actually do the generation of the kilowatts, but that does all of the marine services, the environmental permitting and monitoring and all these things that surround the energy production," Thompson concluded.