Harvesting Wave Energy in Peru

Those following the progress the world is making in wave energy may be interested in the website of these folks in Peru: Atmocean. I have to say that I love the name. It contains the word “ocean” and it’s pronounced “at motion?” That’s seriously clever stuff.

Yet I remain a skeptic that wave energy can be made cost-effective, especially given the recent plummeting of the costs of solar and wind. And, not to state this obvious, if it’s not cost-effective, it will be going away.

Of course, there can be isolated places there this stuff is the best deal in town, as it’s totally clean, and uses no land whatsoever. Imagine you live on one of the Outer Hebrides Islands (shown above); your cottage is surrounded by crashing waves (see below), and it’s as remote as the moon.  Maybe you can’t play touch football on your front yard, but you most certainly live close to a heck of a lot of energy that doesn’t require solar panels or wind turbines to collect.

Its claim to fame is that Felix Mendelsohn went there in the early 19th Century to get the feeling of unspoiled remoteness and the sensation of something pounding in his ears; he sure nailed that one.  Here’s the result.

In any case, there are a few places on Earth where wave energy is just perfect.