Wave Goodbye to Fossil Fuels

Check out this interesting article and diagram from the BBC on wave power.  In the rush to find new sources of renewable energy, the British are discovering new advantages to their island location.  Oil was discovered in the North Sea more than forty years ago, but another major source of power has been hiding in plain sight.  A 2006 report by the Carbon Trust says that wave power could eventually provide for 20% of the UK’s energy needs.  Backed by government funding, a commercial wave farm has been built in Northern Ireland, and two wave machine prototypes are being tested in Scotland.  If wave power is as successful as the UK hopes it to be, it could produce an estimated 50 terra-watt hours of electricity per year with no emissions whatsoever.