The Smarter Earth Institute

Wave power from the seas, oceans, and even lakes is a significant energy resource that is largely untapped despite the fact that energy density in waves is estimated at over 800 times higher than in the wind, currently the most popular alternative energy resource. Typical ocean waves contain the power equivalence of 15 to 50 homes' electricity requirement per one metre width of wave-front. The global potential of usable wave power is estimated to range from 7% to 70% of the world's total energy consumption. Other factors to consider when talking about electric energy production are the environment and aesthetics. Unlike fossil-based power stations, wave power does not generate any harmful greenhouse gases. Unlike wind generators, wave energy devices are either much less obtrusive or completely out of sight.

Challenges

Major challenges to wave power extraction have been the need for the energy conversion devices to withstand violent sea conditions while still being priced to generate electricity competitively. Even the largest floating devices are vulnerable in freak storms; every 50 years there is a wave in the Atlantic Ocean with the height of ten times the average wave. Because of the squared relationship between energy and wave height, wave conversion devices must be able to withstand a hundred times the average wave energy. Measures to combat such conditions like submerging the devices can provide an effective means of defense, but add to the cost of the systems. In the medium to long term outlook, fossil fuel reserves will become scarce and concerns over global warming will increase. Forecasts of an eventual global potential for wave power to provide about 10% to 30% of total electricity production as part of a diverse mix of alternative energy sources do not seem unreasonable.

Cost of electricity

Traditionally the cost of electric energy to the end customer has consisted of the power plant’s construction cost plus the operating costs providing a break-even time for the plant that often comes in after 10 to 20 or more years from the start of operations. With the wind and solar energy this scenario pretends to be much more effective as the input “fuel” is free, but high construction costs relative to the energy obtained from such power plants still render the undertakings relatively costly with break even times sometimes never occurring without a significant rise in energy price. Construction times have ranged from 3 to 5 years for traditional coal/gas/heating oil power stations, and possibly many years longer for nuclear power plants. Construction of wind or solar energy power stations can be faster as the infrastructure is simpler, but can still range from many months to several years.

SwellGen advantage

SwellGen, in comparison, breaks all these traditional frames of reference. Offering a 300,000kW module that, depending on the price of electricity, can provide break-even times from just a few months to a few years while being manufactured and installed inside a single working day, is nothing less than revolutionary. Additionally being remotely monitored and serviced whenever necessary for a trouble-free continuous operation for the electric power marketer completely breaks the traditional model of electric power generation. With SwellGen, owning a wave-powered electric power plant and selling the energy becomes almost as easy as owning a printing press for the purpose of printing money.

Conclusion

SwellGen is currently one of the most potent alternative energy technologies available because of its robust technology and methods for rapid manufacturing and installation. It is one of the only technologies currently available that could be rolled out worldwide in time to counteract the energy crises caused by the rapid rise in the cost of fossil fuels, and because of this can capture a large portion of the world's energy market.