Spring 2009
Letters
A Promising Technology Overlooked?
As someone who has been interested in alternative energy for over 30 years, I greatly enjoyed the article in the spring 2008 issue of Catalyst on wave energy ["How It Works," p. 18]. One possible method of generating energy from waves (not mentioned in the article) would be to simply utilize oil rigs in the ocean as platforms for rocker-arm and piston devices for this purpose.
I am curious as to why this option isn't feasible, and if it is feasible, why isn't it being done? I would very much like to have the authors' thoughts on the feasibility of this option.
Philip R. Pryde
San Diego, CA
The authors respond:
There are many different designs to harness wave and tidal power, but our article focused on the four—point absorbers, overtopping devices, attenuators, and oscillating water columns—that researchers and developers have studied and tested the most. Other technologies, as your question suggests, may also be worth pursuing.
Roger Bedard, an expert in wave energy technology with the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA, believes using oil rigs for wave power is feasible. Few U.S. oil rigs are in waters suited to power generation, but Platform Irene, off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA, is an exception. According to Bedard, Irene would make a perfect wave energy testing facility not only because it sits in ideal wave-generating waters, but also because it has an underwater transmission cable, offshore electrical connection, and onshore electrical substation nearby to bring the power it generates to shore. For now, however, Irene's owner seems focused on oil, rather than the next "wave" of opportunities for harnessing our country's excellent renewable energy resources and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
John Rogers
Senior energy analyst, UCS Clean Energy ProgramEmily Robinson
Press Secretary
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