Marine power technology—wave energy

Marine energy is a major source of renewable energy and yet remains untapped. As the ocean covers about two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, it contains a large amount of energy. Energy can be extracted from the sea exploiting several phenomena, such as salinity gradient (energy from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and fresh water), temperature gradient, waves, and ocean currents. Among these, ocean waves have tremendous potential as a source of renewable energy. The vast amount of of energy from the waves could meet an important part of the energy demand for humankind. Wave energy is enormous, reliable, and has higher energy density compared to wind power and solar power, and thus offers a good correlation between resource and demand. Waves also offer multiple locations for energy harvesting from the shoreline to deep water. There has been worldwide interest in harnessing this immense power from the ocean that can play a major part to solve our energy problems.