All sources of energy (solar, PV, wind, Biomass......even fossil or nuclear) are important for next generations survival whatever is the scale of the plant. Every "drop" of energy will count particularly in remote areas and islands. For those living near the costs or on boats, Wave energy plants (decentralized or not) (combined or not with wind energy..) should be the main supplier of electricity.

for the last innovations see     https://waveenergyprize.org/

CalWave Power Technologies and Waveswing America Named Runners-Up in $2.25 Million Prize Challenge

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy announced AquaHarmonics as the winner of the Wave Energy Prize – which comes with a $1.5 million grand prize. CalWave Power Technologies and Waveswing America were awarded second and third place, respectively, with $500,000 and $250,000 in cash prizes. With more than 50 percent of the U.S. population living within 50 miles of coastlines, there is vast potential to provide clean, renewable electricity to communities and cities across the United States using wave energy.

An 18-month design-build-test competition, the Wave Energy Prize focuses on catalyzing the development of game-changing wave energy converters that will ultimately reduce the cost of wave energy. Wave energy technology could one day provide clean, cost-competitive, reliable energy for homeowners, communities, businesses, and government in geographically suited parts of the United States.

“The Wave Energy Prize marks a significant advance for marine energy,” said Lynn Orr, DOE’s Under Secretary for Science and Energy. “This competition set a difficult threshold of doubling the energy captured from ocean waves, and four teams surpassed that goal. AquaHarmonics’ technology leap incentivized by the Energy Department demonstrates how rapid innovation can be achieved in a public prize challenge.”

Ninety-two teams registered for the prize beginning in April 2015. Over the course of the competition, a panel of judges ultimately identified nine finalists and two alternates, which were announced in March. These teams received up to $125,000 in seed funding to build scaled prototypes of their wave energy converter devices. With the support of the U.S. Navy, the finalist teams tested their prototype devices at the nation's most advanced wave-making facility, the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin at Carderock, Maryland.

Thank you for this wonderful response, Dr. Mohammedi.

I came across this prize referenced in a news article, but did not look into it yet.

Would you be willing to answer a few questions via email for my column? I am still doing research so that I can formulate informed questions, but I can send some over the weekend. This is very short notice, so I understand if your schedule will not accommodate this request.

Best regards,

Margo

Hi Margo,

I've attached a copy of my lecture notes in the Green Energy Systems (GES), ENVT S105E,  course that I teach at Yale University.

I'd appreciate if you would kindly reference this source in your article.

Professor Yehia Khalil, Yale University, USA

Fellow of the University of Oxford, UK

Thank you for the information Dr. Khalil.

Would you be available to email to answer a few questions for my column? I understand this is short notice, so if you are not available I understand.

Best regards,

Margo

Yes of course it is. Anything you can find that will spin a magnet around a coil could be a useful way to produce electricity.  Taking advantage of tidal flows and capturing the energy from waves could be  promising ways to produce electricity but of course building things in the ocean is much more difficult than building things on land

There are lots of scientific articles about wave energy (and renewables), however, you can look at those resources at last in two different perspectives: in technological-economical way or in sociological-politological ones. Those two ways to think and study wave energy, and all "green" aspects (even the efficient energy actions), focus generally on different interests in stake and think about "renewable energy transition" looking on a different possible energy scenario (i.e.: the same top-down provide system versus reticular co-provision system). For example, thinking about wave energy, wind-farms or thermal-solar power station, in this case you need big investments, big facilities and the provision system is similar to the present one, also because you still have few companies that owned. In the second case you generally have thermal solar panel or photovoltaic power solutions (from few kW to more than 500 kW) that both provide energy directly to consumers, which are also owner of that power facilities (generally they can be considered as "prosumers", as to say, both consumer and producer of energy), but also little wind turbines (no higher that 999 kW), micro-hydro power and other not big solution owned by cooperative enterprises or community. Some questions that you can find in the literature about those options (that are just a ideal-type, in the real world you have a mix of that solutions) are for example: (first case) how prevent social-environmental conflicts about big energy power plants? Or (second case) how spread communitarian energy solution?

In addiction, you can find some data on wave and renewables in the European Union in EurObserv'ER reports.

Regards.

https://www.eurobserv-er.org/

Thank you for your response, Dr. Scotti.

You offer an interesting perspective I did not consider. I also appreciate the web site - I will look into this today.

You're welcome

https://www.greentechmedia.com/research/report/forecasting-the-future-of-ocean-power

https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/ISOPE-I-15-374