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Wave Power: Moving towards Commercial Viability, 30 November 1999, Broadway House, Westminster, London
An Overview of Wave Energy Technologies: Status,
Performance and Costs
T W Thorpe
ETSU, B 154, Harwell, Didcot, OX12 0AF.
Tel 01235-433043 – email...
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1
Wave Power: Moving towards Commercial Viability, 30 November 1999, Broadway House, Westminster, London
An Overview of Wave Energy Technologies: Status,
Performance and Costs
T W Thorpe
ETSU, B 154, Harwell, Didcot, OX12 0AF.
Tel 01235-433043 – email tom.
thorpe@aeat.
co.
uk
1 INTRODUCTION
Wave energy can be considered as a concentrated form of solar energy.
Winds, generated by the differential
heating of the earth, pass over open bodies of water, transferring some of their energy to form waves.
The
amount of energy transferred, and hence the size of the resulting waves, depends on the wind speed, the length of
time for which the wind blows and the distance over which it blows (the fetch).
The useful world-wide resource
has been estimated at
> 2 TW (WEC, 1993).
The UK is particularly well situated, being at the end of a long, stormy fetch (the
Atlantic) as can be seen from Figure 1.
Only the southern parts of South America and the Antipodes have a
more energetic wave climate, du
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