Ocean Wave Energy Concept

A reader asked me to comment on this (larger version below).

There is no doubt that it will generate some power in choppy seas.  It’s one of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of different ways inventors have developed to extract some of the energy of our ocean waves.

The best of these concepts apply a force to a turbine that spins in one direction; it’s hard to imagine how that can be pulled off here.  I.e., what are the electromechanics in the “power converter?”

In any case, even the very best of ocean wave energy concepts has no real chance of feasibility given the low cost of other forms of renewable energy, in any but the rarest of circumstances.