What is wave energy?

These new forms of energy can provide a response to the drive for an energy transition that reduces the use of fossil fuels.

Marine renewable energy uses technologies that are still being researched and tested for innovation.

Not to be confused with tidal energy, wave energy is energy that is produced by waves.



The wind blowing on the sea produces waves that concentrate this energy, carrying it over long distances from the sea to the coast.

Wave generators convert waves into electricity and various technologies are used for the prototypes:

Systems consisting of surface or submerged floats driven by waves.



The Scottish company Pelamis Wave Power (formerly Ocean Power Delivery) is the only company to have reached the commercial stage with the Pelamis, or sea snake.



In overtopping systems, the waves pass over an inclined plane to fill a reservoir which in turn drives a turbine as it empties.

This is the case with the Danish Wave Dragon.

Oscillating water column systems use the movement of waves like a piston to compress air in a cavity and drive a turbine.



In France, the Ecole Centrale de Nantes is working with SBM and the French Institute of Petroleum, IFPEN, on a project to create and test a wave energy converter demonstrator in real conditions.