What is Wave Energy?
Every time something moves, there is energy involved and part of that energy can be gathered. The biggest actor on wave energy is the sun.
We can even say that in reality, wave energy is a form of solar energy.
​
The sun heats up the air. When that happens, the heated air expands and becomes lighter. This makes it rise. This creates a vacuum effect and cold air flows to occupy the gap. This creates the wind. As the wind travels close to the sea surface, it creates a sucking effect that pulls the seawater up creating a small wave.
​
Learn more with this external video.
Wind pushes the wave making the wave grow. These are called wind-driven waves. There are also tsunamis mostly caused by the motion of tectonic plates and tidal waves. In a sense a tide is a giant wave with almost 12 hours of period and a height equal to the tidal range.
Waves can travel for extremely vast distances. In fact, if nothing stops them, they will almost travel forever. This means that we can find waves where there is no wind which means that virtually, wave energy can be at a given place almost at any time.
Is Wave Energy Renewable?
Yes, wave energy is completely renewable. We read before that wave energy comes from the sun. The sun is almost 4 and a half billion years old and it’s expected to be there for 5 billion years more. Having sun, means having waves and solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal pressure are considered renewable resources, because, essentially, they have virtually an endless supply.
What are the Advantages of Wave Energy?
Wave energy's greatest advantage is its renewable nature, ensuring it will never deplete. While its intensity may vary with the seasons, waves are a reliable resource. They offer an eco-friendly option and are a natural gift, generating no waste or pollution.
Abundant along coastlines worldwide, populations have historically settled near water sources like rivers and oceans, leading to high concentrations of people in coastal cities. This proximity allows many to benefit from wave energy facilities.
They have a minimal footprint: The size of a pilot farm's ES-Wave devices and the area they occupy is just a fraction of what wind turbines require to produce the same amount of energy.
This is because the array of devices can be placed closer together, unlike wind turbines, which need more space due to their blades disrupting wind flow—an issue that ES-Wave devices do not encounter.
For instance, the Beatrice wind farm, with 84 turbines spread over 131 km², contrasts sharply with our TWEFDA Hub, which uses only 6 ES-Wave devices covering 18,390 m², resulting in a spatial footprint per device is over 500 times smaller.