An Overview of Wave Energy Technologies: Status, Performance and Costs

Work on wave energy within the UK began in the early 1970s with a report from the Central Policy Review Staff, which identified the Government's responsibility to assess a wide range of possible energy options to ensure security of energy supplies. The UK Department of Energy (DEn) funded extensive research into wave energy during the period 1974 to 1983 under its Wave Energy Programme. The programme objectives were to establish the feasibility of extracting energy from ocean waves and to estimate the cost of energy if used on a large scale to supply UK needs. The latter objective was addressed by setting a design aim to establish a 2 GW wave power station situated off South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. During the course of the programme a large number of devices were considered but found to be uneconomic (ETSU, 1985). With hindsight, the objective of that programme was over ambitious and resulted in massive devices, with corresponding high capital and generating costs.