Regardless of whether you’re pulling into giant pits at Teahupoo, enjoying nice long walls at Rincon, or standing up and going straight in the white wash, all surfers know on some instinctual level there’s energy in waves. We can feel it as we’re propelled towards shore.
Understanding and manifesting the potential to convert wave energy into a zero emission sustainable resource that powers a significant part of the grid, however, requires a bigger intellecutal leap and further research and development.
Although much work needs to be done to make wave energy viable and implement it on a scale that will impact fossil fuel consumption trends, the initial surge is under way.
The U.S. Navy and University of Hawaii at Manoa are currently testing and running two units in Kaneohe Bay that harness wave motion to produce about 22 kilowatts collectively. This project is the first wave energy power source to go online in the U.S.
Many other nations are ahead of the U.S. in this field. Since 2011 Spain has been using wave energy to send 300 kilowatts to about 250 households from a plant in Mutriku. Portugal has been making huge efforts since 2008, particularly with the start-up and ensuing closure of a project called the Agucadoura Wave Farm. The European Union is planning to spend hundreds of millions of euros on ocean based energy development in the near future. Carnegie Wave Energy, an Australian company, recently released the following animated video showing how their latest system works:
One of the challenges to using wave energy is building wave harnessing devices that will last in the ocean. Between the corrosive nature of salt water and menacing storm conditions there’s a lot of risk for decay and destruction. It’s also a feat to channel power to locations far from the coast.
The potential benefits, however, are massive. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “The total theoretical wave energy potential is estimated to be 32,000 TWh/yr, roughly twice the global electricity supply in 2008 (16,800 TWh/yr).”
Although the IPCC prediction may be high, the point is clear – a significant amount of clean energy can be converted from ocean movement if we can establish a large scale system to harvest it.
sources and links:
http://phys.org/news/2016-09-wave-produced-electricity-online-hawaii.html
https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/special-reports/srren/Chapter%206%20Ocean%20Energy.pdf
photo of barrel from:
photo of Azura from: