The good thing about wave power is that we have a lot of water, but harnessing ocean power is hard. It’s expensive. The Australian Energy Technology Assessment pegs wave and tidal energy as among the most expensive ways to generate power in the country, even looking decades into the future. This is partly because the technology is still in its infancy.
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‘We are really just at the start of the journey still,’ says Dr. Mike Ottaviano from Carnegie Wave Energy. It’s likely to be a trying journey, given the harsh environmental conditions required for wave power. ‘It's energetic, it's wet, which makes it difficult to install and to maintain,’ says Ottaviano. ‘And it's salty.’ There are also concerns over how these devices may interact with marine environments, surf breaks and ocean amenities.
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