Question: How do you get energy from waves?

Pierre Casaubielh answered on 17 Nov 2015:

There are concepts that are considered and developed.

Let’s start, with an example.
When you are swimming in the sea, or sometimes in the swimming pool, incoming waves are making people moving up and down… it is not the people deciding to move: the waves are making us, they give the energy to move. Systems have been thought, like buoy, to reproduce similar motion, connected to generators.

When an open pipe is placed in water and waves are coming, the water level in the pipe goes up and down, if we put our head on the top we can feel a breeze or change in pressure. A turbine can be placed on the exit to generate electricity.

Others solutions is to use what can be observed at pier’s when waves are big: waves can pass above the pier’s. If we add a container behind, being placed a bit higher than the water level, it can collect the falling water… and, due to the difference of height, a generator can be used to generate the electricity, similar to hydro-electricity station in mountains.