"Technical aspects of wave-generators systems Wec: wave energy converters"

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to point out the actual progress on wave energy con-verters by stressing their differences of construction in all their main parts and by indicat-ing their main working principle as well as their installation characteristics. Resulting from the effect of wind on marine surfaces (the power of the waves is substantially proportional to the power of the wind speed), the wave energy is a net availability of 1 to 5% of the world's annual electricity demand. Recoverable energy could reach up to 2000TWh/year with more efficient conversion systems. However, it is necessary to consider the relatively low conversion efficiency (of the order of 10% on annual averages) of the current recovery systems.