Ocean Energy, Introduction

There are sufficient petroleum resources to meet current worldwide demand for almost 50 years. In addition, coal and natural gas resources could meet current worldwide demand for 100–120 years, respectively. Production, however, is peaking and demand increasing, due to emerging economies like Brazil, Russia, India, and China, such that humanity will face a steadily diminishing supply of fossil fuels.

Given that it takes decades for new technologies to reach maturity, it seems sensible to consider ocean energy resources as some of the replacement “fuels” for the future energy technologies. Based on decades of analyses and small-scale testing, it is concluded that the resources with the most promise, for practical applications, are ocean thermal, offshore wind, waves, tides, and marine currents. In this section the state-of-knowledge of technologies that can convert the wind, thermal, and tidal resources into a useful form of energy is presented. Sorely missing, unfortunately, are wave...