Will High Oil Prices Give Wave Power a Boost?

Even if they drop back from current levels, could historically high oil prices give wave energy a much needed boost?

The Economist looks at the slow progress of wave power relative to wind and solar, in its latest Technology Quarterly.

Dozens of wave-energy technologies are being developed around the world: ideas, in other words, are not what has held the field back. So what has?

Tom Thorpe of Oxford Oceanics, a consultancy, blames several overlapping causes. For a start, wave energy has lagged behind wind and solar, because the technology is much younger and still faces some big technical obstacles. The British government’s decision to shut its wave-energy research program, which had been the world’s biggest during the 1970s, set the field back nearly two decades. Since Britain is particularly well placed to exploit wave energy its decision not to pursue the technology affected wave-energy research everywhere.

Once interest in wave power revived earlier this decade, practical problems arose. A recurring problem, ironically enough, is that new devices underestimate the power of the sea, and are unable to withstand its assault. Installing wave-energy devices is also expensive; special vessels are needed to tow equipment out to sea, and it can be difficult to get hold of them.

Another practical problem is the lack of infrastructure to connect wave-energy generators to the power grid. The cost of establishing this infrastructure makes small-scale wave-energy generation and testing unfeasible; but large-scale projects are hugely expensive.

But at last there are signs of change. Big utilities are taking the technology seriously, and are teaming up with wave-energy companies. The Economist looks at several technologies in varying stages of commercialization.

Several buoy-based systems are in developmennt, inlcuding the Aquabuoy, designed by Finavera Renewables of Vancouver [CVE:WND] which Pacific Gas & Electric hopes to deploy off the California coast. Similar bobbing buoys are also being worked on by AWS Ocean Energy, based in Scotland, and Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT), based in Pennington, New Jersey, among others.

The Oyster, a wave-power device from Aquamarine Power, another Scottish firm, works in an entirely different way. The generator is onshore, and can be connected to lots of Oyster devices, each of which is expected to generate up to 600kW. The idea is to make the parts that go in the sea simple and robust, and to keep the complicated and delicate bits out of the water. Testing of a prototype off the Orkney coast is due to start this summer.

The logical conclusion of this is to put everything onshore—and that is the idea behind the Limpet. It is the work of Wavegen, a Scottish firm which is a subsidiary of Voith Siemens Hydro, a German hydropower firm. A prototype has been in action on the island of Islay, off the Scottish coast, since 2000.

Venture-capitalists are piling in too, as they look for new opportunities. Several wave-energy companies are thought to be planning stockmarket flotations in the coming months.

 

Comments

[sbenard:]

I don't live near an ocean, so this is news to me! Thanks for opening my eyes to a potential new investment possibility!

2008 Jun 09 02:58 PM

[Paul Killinger:]

Maybe there is reason to be hopeful about wave energy. At least the related technologies appear less daunting than those involved with hydrogen fuel cells.

2008 Jun 10 09:14 AM

[NOWHEREMAN:]

everything should be utilized, Wave Power for coastal cities would be an excellent idea.

Too bad for the sailboats, surfers, Sun Rise/Set worshipers, swimmers, etc., because for a city the size of Los Angeles, there would have to be many engines, many power lines and everyone of them would attract sharks of all sizes and shapes.

2008 Jun 10 10:38 AM

[bill d:]

Can we do it Kansas, Dorothy ???

2008 Jun 11 01:43 AM

[Mathman Pro...:]

Oil is primarily made into Gasoline, Deisel, Jetfuel, etc... Essentially, it's energy that is utilized for transportation. Not sure drawing a parallel between Oil price and wave power technology is accurate. I'd look at Coal/Natural Gas/Solar/Wind as more of an apples-to-apples comparison to Wave Power, in terms of application.

2008 Jun 12 09:33 AM