Wave energy converters are in principle no more exotic than windmills or hydroelectric plants. Each of these three systems exists to turn kinetic energy, the motion of sea water, air, or river water respectively, into electricity. Contemporary exploitation of this idea as it applies to waves may be dated to the invention of the Salter duck wave energy device in 1974. That was of course inspired by the oil crisis of its day. In October 1973, the Arab members of OPEC declared an embargo on the sale of oil to the countries they saw as assisting Israel. In the final week of February 1974, according to AAA numbers, 20% of US gasoline stations had no fuel. By the end of the embargo the following March the global price of crude oil had risen from $3 to $12 a barrel. It was a fruitful moment for energy-related innovations. There have been many innovations and elaborations of the idea of wave energy since the days of the Salter duck. Also, efforts to make this a significan...
