Waking Up to Wave Power

Capturing the energy in ocean waves has been a dream of visionary tinkerers since at least 1799, when two Frenchmen filed a patent in Paris for a wave-power device. Now serious research into such contraptions is under way in both Japan and Britain.

Since August, a floating, 500-ton experimental station located 2 1/2 miles at sea off Japan's Honshu island has been producing 125 kw. of power. The facility has several air chambers that are open to the sea at the bottom and contain large floats; as the floats bob up and down, air is pushed through nozzles in the top of the chambers, turning air turbines that drive electric generators.

In Britain, several wave-power machines are under development, of which "contouring rafts" are one of the most promising. Three rafts (see diagram) are hinged together by cylinders containing pistons; the flexing of the hinges in the waves forces the pistons to pump water, turning turbines that produce electricity. A small prototype string of rafts in the English Channel now produces a mere 1 kw., but its designer, Sir Christopher Cockerell, who also invented the Hovercraft, says that a cluster of 300 larger rafts could generate as much energy as a big conventional power station.

Some officials believe that wave-power machines could conceivably supply all of Britain's electricity needs. Says Alexander Eadie, Britain's Under Secretary for Energy: "Wave power is not just a boffin's pipe-dream. It is a credible proposition." The British government has doubled spending on wave-power research this year, to $5.5 million, and the Japanese have committed $5 million over the next two years. They are betting that these investments could pay off in decades ahead. Oil wells may dry up, but waves will never cease to roll.

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