ABSTRACT
Ocean Energy (OE) involves the generation of electricity from the tides, the waves, the currents, the salinity gradient and the thermal gradient of the sea or the ocean. The ocean is an enormous source of renewable energy with the potential to satisfy an important percentage of the worldwide electricity supply. Globally, the theoretical potential of OE has been estimated at over 100,000TWh per year (as a reference, the world’s electricity consumption is around 16,000TWh/year). 1 The global technical resource exploitable with today’s technology is estimated to be in the order of 45,000TWh/year for wave energy; tidal current energy is in the order of 2200TWh/year, salinity gradient energy in the order of 20,000TWh/year and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) in the order of 33,000TWh/year. Conversion of the wave resource alone could supply a substantial part of the electricity demand of several European countries, particularly Ireland, UK, Denmark, Portugal and Spain. The electricity demand on islands in remote areas could entirely be met by converting a small fraction of the available OE resource.
