In early 2010 I gave a public presentation of the various forms of wave energy device technologies to the Lincoln County Technology Solutions Alliance. This presentation was broken into three sections:
The first section delved into what I call the “Wave Energy Density Myth”. This is the idea that because the density of water is almost 1000 times greater than air, wave energy devices can capture more energy. But what is not told by wave energy developers is that while wind turbines can ‘sweep’ large areas with ‘thin’ blades to extract energy from a large area, wave energy devices currently have not found a way to do this. So a roughly 200 tonne wind turbine might have a max output rating of 3kW while the same mass wave buoy might only produce 150kW.
The second section provided a brief survey of the different types of wave energy devices that were being considered around the world. It groups the different types of technologies into seven main areas: attenuators, point absorbers, oscillating wave surge converters, oscillating water column devices, wash-up over-topping devices, flush-in over-topping devices, and submerged pressure deferential devices.
The third section provides a brief look at some of the different mooring designs that have been proposed. It also looks at the main components needed for each of the designs.