Patent ID: 7188471
Filing Date: 2007-03-13
Classification: F03B,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A submersible power plant comprising: a submersible enclosure for submersion in a surrounding body of water to a depth at which the water is under a selected high pressure, an air shaft for maintaining said enclosure at a constant pressure of approximately one atmosphere, at least one intake valve for admitting water at said selected high pressure from said surrounding body of water into said enclosure, at least one turbine driven by water flowing through said intake valve into said enclosure, at least one pump for evacuating water from said enclosure, said pump having a pump chamber, a piston shaft, a buoy, an inflow valve, and a discharge valve, said piston shaft slidingly disposed in said pump chamber, said buoy for floating at the surface of said body of water, said buoy experiencing vertical movement responsive to surface swells in the body of water, said buoy affixed to said piston shaft such that said piston shaft reciprocates in said pump chamber in cooperation with the vertical movement of said buoy, said inflow valve for admitting water from said enclosure into said pump chamber but checking water from flowing out of said pump chamber, and said discharge valve permitting discharge of water into the surrounding body of water from said pump chamber but checking water from flowing into said pump chamber, upward motion of said piston shaft drawing water from said enclosure into said pump chamber through said inflow valve, and downward motion of said piston shaft forcing water through said discharge valve out of said pump chamber into the surrounding body of water, said at least one pump calibrated to evacuate from said enclosure approximately the same volume of water admitted into said enclosure by said intake valve.