Starting in 2007,
massive, predictable waves off the coast of Oregon will help light
homes and businesses along the West Coast, thanks to an entrepreneur
named George Taylor….His most recent invention is a buoy that can
convert a wave’s up-and-down motion into electricity, which can be
carried ashore by undersea cables and fed into the national power
grid….researchers at Oregon State University say that only 0.2 percent
of the ocean’s untapped wave energy could power the entire world.
By the year 2010 Taylor plans to have a 100-ton, 37-foot-wide buoy that
could generate 500 kilowatts. An array of 40 buoys that size, linked
together, could generate electricity at prices significantly less than
that of a typical coal-burning power station, and far less than the
price at plants that burn more expensive fuels such as natural gas.
Clean electricity that cheap could be used to desalinate seawater,
split water molecules to make hydrogen for fuel-cell cars or provide
inexpensive power for other ambitious, energy-hungry projects. –Dan Drollette
