edgepedia

Wave and tidal energy technologies

26 articles

Archimedes Wave Swing

The Archimedes Wave Swing is a fully submerged wave energy converter that generates electricity from wave motion with a linear generator, developed in the Netherlands and tested off Portugal in 2004.

Backward Bent Duct Buoy

The Backward Bent Duct Buoy (BBDB) is a floating wave energy converter with an L-shaped duct opening away from the waves, proposed by Yoshio Masuda in the 1980s.

Bulge wave

A bulge wave is a pressure wave that travels along a water-filled elastic tube submerged in the sea, the principle behind distensible tube wave energy converters like the Anaconda.

CorPower Ocean

CorPower Ocean is a Swedish wave energy company in Stockholm, founded in 2009, whose C4 point-absorber converter has delivered grid power off Aguçadoura, Portugal, since 2023 and earned the first DNV wave energy certification in 2026.

Kaimei

Kaimei (海明) was a Japanese floating oscillating water column wave energy converter, described as the first large-scale device deployed at sea, tested off Yamagata in 1978–1980 and 1985–1986.

Mighty Whale

Mighty Whale (マイティーホエール) was a floating oscillating water column wave energy converter developed by Japan's JAMSTEC and tested at sea off Gokasho Bay, Mie Prefecture, from 1998 to 2002.

Mocean Energy

Mocean Energy is a Scottish wave energy company founded in Edinburgh in 2015, whose Blue X prototype was tested at EMEC in Orkney and powered subsea equipment in the North Sea.

Ocean Power Technologies

Ocean Power Technologies is an American maritime technology company founded in New Jersey in 1984, building wave-energy buoys, autonomous surface vessels, and command-and-control software for defense and ocean research.

Ocean Renewable Power Company

Ocean Renewable Power Company is a Maine company, founded in 2004, whose tidal turbines in Cobscook Bay delivered grid power in 2012, described as a North American first.

Orbital Marine Power

Orbital Marine Power is a Scottish engineering company, headquartered in Orkney, that develops floating tidal stream turbines; its O2 turbine has generated grid power at EMEC since 2021.

Oscillating water column

An oscillating water column (OWC) is a wave energy converter in which waves compress air in a chamber, driving a turbine and generator to produce electricity.

Overtopping device

An overtopping device is a wave energy converter that stores overtopped waves in a reservoir above sea level and drains the water through low-head turbines driving generators.

Pelamis wave energy converter

The Pelamis wave energy converter was a floating, articulated wave energy device that in 2004 became the first offshore wave converter to supply a national grid.

Point absorber

A point absorber is a buoy-like wave energy converter, small relative to the wavelength, that captures energy from waves and is the most common wave energy converter type.

PowerBuoy

PowerBuoy is a wave energy converter made by Ocean Power Technologies: a floating buoy whose motion drives a generator, first grid-connected in the US in 2010.

Salter's duck

Salter's duck, also called the nodding duck or Edinburgh duck, is a wave energy converter invented by Stephen Salter at Edinburgh in 1974, never tested at sea after a disputed 1982 cost review.

SSG wave energy generator

The SSG (Sea-wave Slot-cone Generator) is a Norwegian overtopping wave energy converter, patented in 2003, in which waves fill stacked reservoirs that drain through turbines to generate electricity.

Sustainable Marine Energy

Sustainable Marine Energy is a UK-based tidal energy company known for its floating PLAT-I platforms, which delivered the first floating in-stream tidal power to Nova Scotia's grid in 2022.

Tidal barrage

A tidal barrage is a dam-like structure built across an estuary or bay that traps tidal water and releases it through turbines to generate electricity.

Tidal lagoon

A tidal lagoon is a proposed form of tidal range power station: a man-made impoundment basin with embedded turbines that generates electricity from the rise and fall of the tide.

Tocardo

Tocardo is a Dutch tidal power company in Den Oever, Netherlands, founded in 2008, whose horizontal-axis tidal turbines include a 1.25 MW array in the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier.

Verdant Power

Verdant Power is a New York-based tidal energy company, founded in 2000, that develops three-bladed turbines and is known for the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project.

Wave Dragon

Wave Dragon is a Danish floating, offshore wave energy converter of the overtopping type, whose parabolic reflector arms concentrate waves into a reservoir above sea level.

Wave Star

Wave Star (Wavestar) is a Danish wave energy converter in which a row of floats drives a hydraulic generator, conceived by Niels and Keld Hansen in 2000.

WaveRoller

WaveRoller is a nearshore wave energy converter developed by Finnish company AW-Energy Oy, in which a panel hinged to the seabed swings with the wave surge to drive a generator.

Wells turbine

The Wells turbine is a self-rectifying air turbine patented by Alan Arthur Wells in 1976, the most widely used power take-off for oscillating water column wave energy converters.