Market for wave power
The interest for ocean wave power has increased in the last few years. Political actions are taken to increase renewable energy production as a step in fighting the climate change. Oil prices have doubled since 2001. Oil resources are gradually being depleted and it becomes increasingly difficult and costly to find new oil resources.
Many larger power utilities such as RWE, Vattenfall, E.ON, Fortum and others are following the development of wave power closely and are supporting or investing in wave power companies to evaluate the different technologies and position themselves for future investments when deemed feasible. Plans for commercial installations are emerging and several sites intended for wave power extraction have already been secured.
Competition
At present, various types of wave power technologies are being developed by different companies and institutional research centers. These concepts can be divided into different categories based on the principle used to capture the energy of the waves. Most common are the so called point absorbers in which a buoy follows the wave motion at the surface. Other types include: (i) Oscillating wave surge converters using the horizontal motion on the sea floor near shore, (ii) Attenuators using the plane angular modulation between two or more floating bodies, (iii) Oscillating water columns using compression and decompression of air from water oscillating in a pipe, (iv) Overtopping devices capturing wave crests in a pool to create a higher water level than the surrounding sea which is then used in the same way as in hydro power, and (v) Pressure modulation devices installed on the sea floor using pressure fluctuation over the device when the water column above it changes in height.
The most advanced projects in terms of experience and commercialisation include: Pelamis (attenuator), Ocean Power Technology (self reacting point absorber), Wavebob (self reacting point absorber), Aquamarine Power (oscillating wave surge converter) and Seabased (point absorber). Many wave power developers and power companies are locating activities in UK and Portugal where the political means of support for wave power is high, and also the wave energy resources are abundant.
