Wave Energy

Wave power varies considerably in different parts of the world. Areas of the world with abundant wave power resources include the western coasts of Scotland, northern Canada, southern Africa, Australia, and the northwestern coast of the United States, particularly Alaska.

Whereas wind resource potential is typically given in gigawatts (GW), wave and tidal resource potential is typically given in terawatt-hours/year (TWh/yr). 

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has completed a recent analysis of the U.S. wave energy resource potential, available here. EPRI estimates the total wave energy resource along the outer continental shelf at 2,640 TWh/yr.  

That is an enormous potential, considering that just 1 TWh/yr of energy will supply around 93,850 average U.S. homes with power annually. While an abundance of wave energy is available, it cannot be fully harnessed everywhere for a variety of reasons, such as other competing uses of the ocean (i.e. shipping, commercial fishing, naval operations) or environmental concerns in sensitive areas. Therefore, it is important to consider how much resource is recoverable in a given region. EPRI estimates that the total recoverable resource along the U.S. shelf edge is 1,170 TWh/yr, which is almost one third of the 4,000 TWh of electricity used in the United States each year. We are here to delivery this technology where applicable.