SF Cleantech Pitchfest: Energy from Ocean Waves

CalWave: Harnessing energy from ocean waves

At CalWave, Marcus Lehmann is developing the WaveCarpet, which harnesses the power of ocean waves to produce electricity and freshwater. Avoiding the pitfalls of other wave-energy projects, the WaveCarpet operates submerged, allowing it to survive stormy seas while causing no visual pollution or posing any collision danger. Recently CalWave was selected as one of nine finalists to compete for DOE’s Wave Energy Prize—a 20-month design-build-test competition. Earlier this year, the German-born Marcus was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Energy Sector.

CalWave was selected to participate in Berkeley Lab’s incubation program, called Cyclotron Road. This DOE-funded program seeks to identify the world’s best hard energy technology innovators and provide them the tools, capital, and partners needed to commercialize their technologies.

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[Nurr]

I wonder how maintenance on these would be conducted, given that you can't turn the waves off. I'm sure that's not insurmountable but I'd love to know of the proposed solution.

[nauticaltorque]

How much energy does one average installation produce and would it be "baseload "electricity? Ie, would it be predictable and consistent and able to replace fossil fuel and nuclear generation?