Energy SecurityPowerful Clean Energy Available in Our Oceans
Marine energy—clean power generated from ocean currents, waves, tides, and water temperature changes—is still young, but it has the potential to deliver clean, renewable electricity to coastal communities where nearly 40 percent of Americans live. Before that can happen, scientists need to pinpoint which oceanic arteries host the most reliable energy.
Mike Muglia hates to miss a wave.
A self-described surf junkie, Muglia catches waves on his surfboard off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Further into those waters—15 nautical miles to be exact—sits another surfer. Aptly named Waverider, this surfer is a 440-pound, half banana-yellow, half beet-purple buoy that Muglia uses to study the energy that flows in our oceans.
Marine energy—clean power generated from ocean currents, waves, tides, and water temperature changes—is still young, but it has the potential to deliver clean, renewable electricity to coastal communities where nearly 40 percent of Americans live. Before that can happen, scientists need to pinpoint which oceanic arteries host the most reliable energy. With 3.4 million square nautical miles of U.S. waters—a larger area than the combined landmass of all 50 states—there is a lot left to explore.
Now, Muglia and Miguel Canals just deployed two new Waverider buoys—one off the coast of North Carolina and the other off Puerto Rico. There, the surfers will collect detailed data on the surface waves in those areas of the Atlantic Ocean, adding to publicly available data sets on waves, currents, and water temperatures that will not only move marine energy closer to widescale use but also help scientists understand how climate change is affecting our oceans.
Muglia is a principal investigator at the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association and research professor at the Coastal Studies Institute of North Carolina, and Canals is a principal investigator at the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System in Puerto Rico.
“We want to characterize the wave energy resources available,” said Canals, who, like Muglia, surfs the same waves he studies. “But we also want to collect long-term data on waves to understand the ocean and the changing climate for the benefit of future generations.”
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL), which owns the two Waverider buoys, partnered with ocean experts Muglia and Canals to collect this critical new data. This NREL-led effort is part of a larger, nine-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office. The collaborative, multi-institution study generates the resource data that technology and project developers need to design the next generation of devices. No one institution (or buoy) can collect it all, which is why partners like Muglia and Canals are so valuable.
