Yet another company diving into the competition is a Salem, Oregon based startup, M3 Wave Energy Systems. Its idea relies on wave pressure passing over air-filled pillows on the sea floor. The pulses compress air, which can then be used to spin an electric turbine. Tillamook Public Utility District manager Pat Ashby has seen even (1)________________________.
"We've become kind of a bulls-eye for world developers." Prototype ocean energy devices are generating electricity in Scottish, Hawaiian and Australian waters, but not here yet.
Coming first to the U.S. West Coast will likely be a bobbing buoy generator next year. Eventually, (2)________________________, anchored to the ocean floor, would bob up and down with the swells. The movement creates electricity. Ashby says a floating wind farm also seems plausible near term because wind power is well understood.
"The others have got new technology that needs to be tested. It's not really existing anywhere in the world right now. And so, the devices that produce the energy and (3)________________________- corrosive elements - need a lot of work yet."
