Wave Energy Continues To Make Progress, But….

I’m on the receiving end of a constant barrage of press releases that boast breakthroughs in every conceivable flavor of renewable energy. And, as much as I hate to be cynical, I have to believe that most of this stuff won’t pan out, meaning that it will never become cost-effective vis-a-vis other forms of clean energy.

Below is video on wave energy, which at the end of the day is just another variant of solar, insofar as waves are caused wind (created by the sun’s energy) blowing across the surface of the ocean. Anyone who’s ever stood on the beach has an appreciation for the energy of the pounding surf. Thus, there are several dozen variations on the theme of how to extract that energy and turn it into electricity. However, there are two issues that won’t go away:

• Competing against super-mature technologies (solar PV and wind) whose costs continue to plummet, if only because of the massive scale by which they are being manufactured today, which, of course, continues to grow each year.

• Dealing with the fact that wave energy devices need to be massively overbuilt to deal with storms that deliver hundreds of times more power than is received under normal conditions. Solar and wind face that issue to some degree, but it’s minute in comparison to wave.

I love reading through the press releases, but I remain skeptical.