Ocean energy
The mechanical use of falling water is an age old technology.
It was used by the Greeks to turn water wheels
for grinding wheat into flour more than 2 000 years ago.
It was not until 1870 that hydropower was exploited for
the production of electricity.
During the first half of the 1900, hydropower became
one of the world’s most important electricity sources.
Ocean energy
The ocean is an enormous energy storage that is supplied with energy from sunlight, geothermal sources, the earth’s rotation and gravity, in concert with mechanical and hydrothermal processes. There have been many ideas to try to extract some of the energy potential from the ocean through the years. The oldest ones are several hundred years old, and on a global basis there are more than 1 000 patents on different constructions to harness this potential.
Ocean energy resources
According to the International Energy Agency, the potential for total global resources from ocean related energy sources lie at up to 100 000 TWh/year. In comparison, the earth’s total energy consumption lies at over 13 000 TWh/year. However, factors like immature technology, large technological challenges and high costs mean that no commercial ocean based power plant can compete with conventional power production without strong support. Other important shortcomings are value chain functions, infrastructure, legislation and standardization.
References
References to the information about ocean power.