The Motion of the Ocean

If Cape Codders decide they can't live with wind turbines (see previous entry below) perhaps they'll settle for wave power. The first commercial wave farm was planted off the coast of Portugal last year, with three wave-energy capture devices expected to produce enough electricity for 1,500 households. A Welsh wave farm slated for implementation in 2007 is expected to power 60,000 homes. And another large-scale project is being considered in South Africa.

Reporting in Discover Magazine last year, author Eric Scigliano noted that enough energy breaks on the world's coastlines every two hours to power 5 million American households for a year. He writes:

The bonanza is so obvious that inventors have dreamed of harnessing ocean waves for more than two centuries. In 1799 a French father-and-son team tried to patent a giant lever attached to a floating ship, which would rock with the waves to drive shoreside pumps, mills, and saws. But steam power stole everyone's attention, and the dream languished on drawing boards. Two centuries later, oil embargoes once again spurred wave-power designs, but they passed into memory as gasoline prices slid downward. Now, as oil prices soar again, wave energy may finally be poised to deliver.

Today, oil futures closed at just under $66 a barrel.