Abstract
The oil crisis in the 1970s emphasized the need to find other solutions to satisfy the growing global demand of energy.
The world's oceans may eventually provide us with energy to power our homes and businesses. Right now, there are very few ocean energy power plants and most are fairly small. But how can we get energy from the ocean that will also be cost competitive?
There are four basic ways to tap the ocean for its energy. We can use the ocean's waves; we can use the ocean's high and low tides; we can harness underwater currents; or we can use temperature differences in the water.
The most concrete example of this technology using ocean energy from the tides, located in La Rance, France, was inaugurated in 1966 and so promoted technologies from the ocean for more development.
At the moment, the use of ocean energy remains mainly at the prototype stage. Yet some companies have set up commercial scale products in the last few years; currently, prototypes are no longer confined only to laboratories of universities. One of the recent achievements is the RITE Project on the East River – New York, NY. It is one proof of the ability to create profitable and sustainable projects.