News

Ocean Power Technologies, based in New Jersey, is preparing to launch its tidal power generator off the coast of Oregon in October. The deployment will be the first of its kind, not just in the U.S. but worldwide. Even though the technology is new, it's not exactly groundbreaking. As the New York Times reports:

“Wave energy is essentially an accumulation of wind energy,” Charles F. Dunleavy, the chief executive at Ocean Power Technologies, said in a telephone interview. In the northern Pacific, he said, consistent winds fuel consistent waves, and the distance they travel in their rolling line creates a huge area of wave energy, or fetch, that a bobbing buoy can capture. Other places with good fetch include some areas off the coasts of Western Europe and South America.