[PSUBS-MAILIST] Power Generation for an Underwater Habitat

If you placed your habitat in the right place, maybe you could generate power for it by putting a unidirectional water turbine in the ocean current. Devices exist that can produce rotational motion in one direction irrespective of the direction of flow of the current. A the moment, such devices only exist to operate in air, but the dynamic principles could easily be adapted to water. Perhaps a derivative of Jaque Cousteau's electric sails would be suitable - albeit a bit wider and a bit shorter. This system would be extremely low maintenance and would eliminante the need for storing large quantities of volatile chemicals - it would also mean that the only air had pumped down would be for breathing, not for running an internal combustion generator. Something to think about?

For something that would operate in shallow water, perhaps you could even build it out of the large cylindrical underground tanks that they have at gas stations. The inside would need to be treated, and maybe reinforced a little, but a second-hand one would probably be quite cheap and readily available. Again, just an idea.