245 



perhaps the first time, the possibility arises of achieving on a very large commercial 

 scale an essentially perfect match between a renewable energy source and an 

 energy end use, almost entirely free from the usual kinds of mismatch between 

 supply and load that occur, for example, in the transmission and distribution of 

 electricity (at a cost over twice the cost of generation) to nonindustrial customers of 

 private utilities in the United States. Here, too, for perhaps the first time, is to be 

 found a technologically and economically feasible example, on a very large commer- 

 cial scale, of the complete decentralization — with all of the concomitant gains in 

 economy that characterize a successful "soft technology" — of what would ordinarily 

 be regarded as a centralized "hard technology." 



The illustrative wave energy converter described in the above cited International 

 Publication is an embodiment that would be particularly appropriate for service on 

 the high seas, at locations having appreciably higher than average significant wave 

 heights; and it would accordingly have a maximum wave power output exceeding 50 

 MW. On the other hand, for service off the North Carolina coast, as contemplated 

 here, waveconverters of the same kind could be constructed on a scale perhaps half 

 as great in terms of linear dimensions. In the latter case, the waveconverters would 

 draw approximately 50 feet. They would be capable of operating in any one of a 

 broad range of sea states, and at any depth up to 200 feet or more, adjustable 

 according to the sea state. They could therefore be safely operated at maximum 

 wave power output, even in extremely stormy seas, in coastal waters whose depth 

 was a little as 400 feet. However, in order to maintain a maximum annual rate of 

 wave power output, it would be desirable to operate the waveconverters at or 

 slightly beyond the boundary of the continental shelf or, in other words, at distances 

 from the North Carolina coast in excess of 50 miles, where the water depth would 

 always exceed 500 feet and the significant wave height would be appreciably greater 

 than that encountered closer inshore. 



Even on this reduced scale, each waveconverter employed would have a maximum 

 wave power output in excess of 15 MW; and its hull displacement — which would be 

 sufficient to support a turbine, an electric generator, and complete facilities for 

 hydrogen production by electrolysis of water — would exceed 15,000 tons. The hydro- 

 gen thus generated by one or more such waveconverters would be pumped to shore 

 via a pipeline or pipelines laid on the ocean floor. A variety of alternative methods 

 would also be available for transmitting any desired portion of the wave-generated 

 electric power to shore. 



Is there something unique about this particular kind of waveconverter, one might 

 ask at this point, which excludes from consideration, at least for the immediate 

 purposes of the present commercial application, other kinds of waveconverters as 

 well as other forms of ocean energy source, such as ocean thermal energy conver- 

 sion (OTEC), ocean currents, ocean salinity gradients, and even windmills located at 

 sea? My reply to this question would be that, in order to demonstrate the commer- 

 cial viability of any ocean energy source in the context of the present commercial 

 application, two necessary conditions must simultaneously be satisfied. The first is 

 that the energy source must already have reached a relatively advanced stage of 

 technical readiness; and the second is that it must independently possess a reliable 

 means of survival under severe storm conditions, such that operation of the means 

 of survival will not interfere with the ocean energy extraction process. 



For the particular kind of waveconverter that has just been under discussion, the 

 required means of survival can actually be identified with, and can thereby serve to 

 enhance, the ocean energy extraction process itself. That this is so has been shown 

 in the above cited International Publication No. WO 79/00349. Moreover, on refer- 

 ring to pages 1-11 of that publication, where those particular features are identified 

 and explained which insure safe and effective waveconverter operation even in 

 extremely heavy seas, it will be seen that every such safety feature is lacking not 

 only in all contemplated OTEC installations, but also in all of the most technically 

 ready waveconverters that have hitherto been proposed by others. In every such 

 instance, in fact, it is only by adopting the means and methods recommended in the 

 above cited publication that such safety features could be realized in practice. 



With respect to the state of technical readiness of the kind of waveconverter 

 described in that publication, it has already been pointed out in my statement of 

 last year to the Senate Banking Committee (see above) that "at no level (of wave 

 energy extracting capacity) within the range between an initial 1 MW or less and 

 an ultimate 100 MW or more would there be any major technical roadblock. . . ." It 

 should here be stressed, moreover, that the extensive American experience with 

 OTEC and the equally extensive British experience with the Salter waveconverter 

 can, in combination and as a kind of by-product, provide the utmost assistance in 

 bringing closer by a number of years the commercialization of other kinds of ocean 

 energy source as well, including the particular kind of waveconverter recommended 



