Most of the energy that runs our society today comes from fossil fuels. They are not in unlimited supply, however, and we should start now to find alternative sources of energy to prepare for what is to come.
Alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric are thought to be the forerunners in clean energy. Developing their technology so that the price of energy is lower than fossil fuels will be important for weaning us off of fossil fuels.
There are other types of alternative energy which you may not have considered, however. One such energy source is wave energy, and people are beginning to become excited about how it is developing.
The energy in waves is very dense, so energy can be taken out of them with a relatively small power plant. Wave energy also doesn't break like sun energy or wind energy may.
A country famous for its beaches and surfing, Australia, already has many of these wind generators powering its cities.
One off the coast of a city just south of Sydney is about 100 yards off the beach. It weighs about 500 tons but it can power about 500 homes and desalinate 2000 litres of sea water every day, about enough to supply those same homes.
It is very well built so that it can survive most major storms. It makes about 500kW of energy and it was $4.7M to build.
Wave energy is still fairly expensive, but many experts believe that as its technology develops it may have the best chance of any alternative energy to become less expensive than fossil fuels.
