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Catching a wave of power potential.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Ocean swells pack enough raw power to snap a mega-freighter in two and chisel rocks into sand. Soon they might also provide the energy to light a city and even boost its economy.

Call it the wave of the future.

And it's a future that might not be too far off. Researchers at Oregon State University are honing the design of a new electricity-generating ocean buoy that can turn the churning of the sea into clean, green power for an energy-hungry grid. They are helping lay the groundwork for what would be the nation's first offshore wave energy park.

The electricity is out there. Engineers have estimated that harnessing just 0.2 percent of the ocean's untapped energy would meet the entire planet's power needs.

"There's a tremendous amount of energy available in the ocean," said Oregon State University engineering professor Annette von Jouanne, who is leading an OSU wave energy project with fellow professor Alan Wallace. "There is a tremendous amount of energy available in wave motion."

But not all waves are created equal. Some, such as those on parts of the East Coast, are so mild that they don't have...

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