(Describer) Streams of light collide to create a globe filled with water. Title: Science Nation. A large cylinder on a disk is pulled through open water.
(female)
What we're looking at
is the deployment
of our 11th
wave energy buoy.
(male narrator)
Power from clean and constant
ocean waves
could help solve
the world's energy problems.
It hasn't always been easy
to generate support
for this renewable source.
(Describer) Annette von Jouanne:
In 1998, when I was writing
these white papers
and proposals, people
were saying, "She's crazy.
"We can't harness energy
from the ocean.
It's too harsh
of an environment."
(narrator)
Before this successful field
test off the Oregon coast...
Contactors
and circuit breakers.
(narrator)
Electrical engineer
Annette von Jouanne
experimented
with many technologies.
(Describer) She shows some of them.
This is a linear
to rotary system.
These were two
of those top five
built at the 200 watt level.
(narrator)
With support from the
National Science Foundation,
von Jouanne developed many
wave energy devices.
This design
has few moving parts.
(Describer) The buoy.
You have this
magnet assembly
heaving up and down
in the waves,
creating this changing
magnetic field
and the direct conversion
of that linear heaving motion
of the wave
into electrical energy.
(narrator)
In the lab, they can mimic
the harsh ocean environment.
(Describer) A whale sprays water.
They're also designing systems
to minimize harm
to marine mammals.
(female)
We do have,
off the Oregon coast,
about 20,000 whales
that migrate.
So we have experts
who are also looking
at acoustic
avoidance systems
that are encouraging
the whales
to go around these
wave installations.
Experts say wave energy
might one day supply
up to 6%
of U.S. energy needs.
Wave power is available
80% to 90% of the time,
twice that
of wind or solar.
(female)
Fortunately, we are in a
climate that people understand
the importance of renewable
energy technologies.
(narrator)
So clean ocean energy may be
the wave of the future.
(Describer) A globe turns.
For Science Nation,
I'm Miles O'Brien.
