Geoff Greene saw the power of water currents up close 15 years ago, when a 25-foot boat he was riding in the Mississippi River was nearly dragged underwater when its anchor snagged on the bottom and pulled down on the back of the vessel.
A question then popped into Greene's brain: How can I harness that underwater energy?
'A lot of power there, I've got to look into this,' Greene recalls thinking. 'It evolved into this wonderfully simple wheel.'
Using water's movement to generate energy is certainly not an original thought -- dams and hydroelectric power plants fill that role. But Greene's challenge was to create a new way to produce clean energy and avoid the costly and time-consuming effort of building a dam or power plant.
Enter the Greene Turbine, a 15-year labor of science, engineering and love that will be exhibited starting Monday at the University of Memphis. Greene, a 46-year-old high school graduate with no college degree who earns his living as a handyman, has a vision of installing his turbines in rivers and oceans to add juice to the nation's electrical grids."
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