• 2 days ago
Research decades in the making is testing devices to convert the power of ocean waves into electricity.
Transcript
00:00The power of the ocean could soon be used to power homes in the United States as scientists
00:04prepare to test an untapped form of renewable energy.
00:08The U.S. Department of Energy has already invested $112.5 million to advance the commercial
00:14readiness of wave energy technologies by harnessing the powerful waves.
00:18The first ever facility equipped with open water testing is set to begin operations off
00:23the Oregon coast next summer.
00:26Named PacWave, the facility is built with the infrastructure to house four separate
00:31test berths each with its own dedicated cable that leads to about seven miles offshore back
00:37to the coastal facility.
00:39It's a project more than a decade in the making, requiring years of permit approvals with the
00:44Federal Emergency Regulation Commission and input from all the federal ocean agencies,
00:49including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Fisheries Service, and the Marine
00:54Mammal Commission.
00:56The five-year investment from the federal government will involve testing companies
01:00to accelerate the design, fabrication, and testing of the wave energy converters, which
01:06will harness that power from the ocean waves, which will then be converted to PacWave into
01:10energy that will supply the power grid.
01:14Ocean wave energy could soon be synonymous with other natural sources of power like wind,
01:18solar, and geothermal, just to name a few.
01:21In the United States, there's enough estimated marine energy resources, including waves,
01:26tides, rivers, and ocean currents to power over half of the country's energy demands.
01:32The renewable could prove to be even more abundant, unlike solar, which ends when the
01:36sun sets, and wind, which isn't always available, so that's what we're going to be watching
01:41out for that.
01:42Stay right here with AccuWeatherhead.
01:43We'll have more updates coming up right after this.

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