An extremely abundant and promising source of energy exists in the world’s oceans. Ocean energy exists in the forms of wave, tidal, marine current, thermal (temperature gradient) and salinity. Among these forms, significant opportunities and benefits have been identified in the area of wave energy extraction.
Wave energy also offers higher energy densities, enabling devices to extract more power from a smaller volume at consequent lower costs and
reduced visual impact.
A multidisciplinary wave energy team at Oregon State University (OSU) has been pursuing wave energy development and has built direct-drive wave energy generators.
OSU, in collaboration with Columbia Power Technologies (CPT) and the U.S. Navy, evaluated 18 different direct-drive technologies, and down-selected to five promising designs. OSU and CPT built each of those prototypes at the 200W peak level and tested them on OSU’s new wave energy linear test bed.
For more detials visit : http://www.boem.gov/Renewable-Energy-Program/Renewable-Energy-Guide/Ocean-Wave-Energy.aspx