Andrew Hardwick (UR)

Alrighty, so then:

There are several suggested ways to harness wave energy. However, the one we will be focusing on in this post would be the attenuator. More specifically, the Pelamis wave energy converter

These bad boys were already used in Portugal in 2008 about three miles off the coast of Agucadoura. Just using three devices, the farm was able to produce 2.25MW of power. For reference: the average American home uses about 867 kWh a month. However, these machines had to be taken out of operation after four months due to technical issues, and because it was during the economy incident (I wouldn't exactly call it a "crisis" in hindsight) occuring around that time, not many people were willing to pay so much money to have them brought back online. Since November 2014 the IP was owned by Wave Energy Scotland, and after two years of testing and trials, was dismantled. The parts are being recycled and the data collected will help future efforts with harnessing wave energy. However, the P2-002WEC device is still operational and used for testing (currently owned by the European Marine Energy Center).


Fast forward to June 2018: A brand new "sea snake" design from a team in Georgia Tech threw the hydraulics idea out the window and replaced it with a technology called triboelectric nanogenerators (otherwise known as TENGs). This tech could revolutionize any kind of method to energy harnessing in the industry. From what I understand, it is able to utilize any kind of mechanical and/or kinetic energy that comes into contact with a surface that is laced with these nano machines. This tech could increase the amount of energy we are able to harness from smaller and weaker waves. Let alone the amount of energy from the larger and more powerful waves.