After years in the doldrums, the quest to harvest energy from the oceans is gathering speed. (click here)
Jeff Tollefson
But the outlook has brightened for those hoping to tap this source of
energy. In the past few years, several major industrial leaders have
acquired start-up companies that harvest energy from tides, the easiest
type of marine power to capture. In March, three projects were approved
for Canada's Bay of Fundy, home to some of the largest tides on the
globe. The wave-energy industry, which is targeting a much larger but
more elusive resource, has had a few setbacks, including a decision to
scale back plans for an array off the coast of Oregon last month. But
there is little doubt that both types of marine energy will eventually
grow. Last year, the London-based consultancy Bloomberg New Energy
Finance projected that up to 22 tidal projects and 17 wave projects
generating more than one megawatt of electricity — enough to power
around 250 homes — could be installed by 2020.
In theory, oceans could power the entire globe without adding any pollution to the atmosphere. And they could provide a more dependable source of electricity than the wind or sun. They are also geographically convenient: roughly 44% of the global population lives within 150 kilometres of the coastline....
