An Ocean of Possibility (and Cost)

One particular corner of the renewable energy world that has been off my radar screen recently is the much balleyhooed wave energy and/or marine current energy. It's no secret that, while this is hypothetically feasible, it's an economic boondoggle.

To back that up, consider this statistic from a report prepared for the California Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative:

"...wave and marine current power generation can cost as much as $445 per MWH and $410 per MWH, respectively. Other renewables like wind, solid biomass, hydroelectric and geothermal have clean energy generation costs nearing $150 per MWH."

The write-up in Earth2Tech admits that this isn't exactly "news" but it does kind of jump off the page at you when you see it in print.

Why Wave and Tidal Power Are Lost At Sea — It’s Darn Expensive [Earth2Tech]