By Keith Johnson
June 9, 2009
Brian Baskin reports:
If interest in anything smacking of clean energy is so high, why are ocean energy projects still waiting for the tide to come in?
In theory, generating power from the ocean’s waves seems like an easy sell. It’s a potentially massive, clean, domestic, constant source of energy that doesn’t depend on the vagaries of the weather or unsightly turbines. State governments—and soon, the federal government—are encouraging and mandating greater use of clean energy.
Yet the same utilities and investors that tinkered with wind and solar farms for decades aren’t showing the same patience for waves.
“The window for true innovation will only be open for so long…and then the demand for renewable energy will be filled by existing technologies,” said Ed Feo, head of the renewables practice at the law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, in an e-mail. “I hope the window for (wave) energy doesn’t close before the industry has products ready for prime time.”
Wave power faces four primary obstacles. It’s very immature technology—there are about 80 different ways to snatch electricity from the ocean, and not all of them will be winners.
To read the full article: http://blogs.wsj.com/
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