Wave Energy Reaches Milestone in Calif.

Photo: Malene Thyssen

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The Pacific Gas and Electric Co. beat out its competitor and landed an exclusive permit to develop a wave energy farm off the coast of Northern California, according to the Eureka Times Standard.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit will give the utility exclusive rights to design, study and possibly build what could be the first wave energy project in the United States, or world. It will still have to prove that it won't harm the ocean environment in its effort to produce clean electricity.

PG&E's plan calls for 200 "energy-conversion buoys" that would generate about 40 megawatts of energy as they bob off shore. That's equivalent to the energy output of a fairly typical 16-turbine wind farm, and a drop in a very big bucket of energy demand. A typical nuclear power plant might generate 2,000 megawatts or more.

Still, it's a minor milestone in the development of a new renewable energy source, one that could be developed into a major contributor to a future clean, low-carbon economy.

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