What
is Wave Energy?
What are the advantages of wave energy?
What are the drawbacks of wave energy?
Wave energy is the utilization of energy from the ocean. Many techniques have been developed to harvest this enormous amount of power. Some of them are the open Oscillating Water Column (OWC), closed OWC, and the Raft. An open OWC is basically a device floated on the ocean surface that converts the slow and sudden powerful waves into faster but less powerful air currents to push the air turbine. An open OWC device uses a special kind of turbine invented by Professor Alan Wells of Queen's University of Belfast, which can turn in the same direction no matter where the air is coming from. A closed or submerged OWC is very similar to the open OWC. The only difference is that the closed OWC is submerged into the ocean and fixed onto the seabed. Instead of using the energy from waves that directly impact the device, it uses differences in water pressure between each wave crest.1
The Raft idea, invented by Sir Christopher, was basically a series of rafts connected by hinges with hydraulic jacks. When a wave arrives, the rafts will float up and down according to the shape of the wave. The up and down motion then pushes the hydraulic jacks which will push fluid into a hydraulic turbine to generate electricity.2
Other than this hydraulic technique, many other approaches have also been invented. For example, the Ryokuseisha TG-2 generates electricity by compressing air with wave energy. Spring generators driven by a pendulum is also another approach.3
What are the advantages to wave energy?
Like many of the alternative energies, wave energy is clean and renewable. Some of the devices installed for wave energy can also act as a barrier, protecting buildings along the shoreline.
What are the drawbacks to wave energy?
Wave energy is localized to regions that are close to the ocean, especially to the ocean on the southern hemisphere. This is because the significant wave heights (average wave heights) in the south are about 4.5 to 5 meters all year round, but the average wave height in the northern hemisphere drops to 2 meters in the summer.4 Furthermore, the designs of the devices also require more fine-tuning to decrease maintenance costs. These costs are greater than other coastal structures due to the fact that devices are designed to absorb the enormous energy of the wave instead of letting it pass by.
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