8. Ocean power
Key facts
• Energy in ocean currents, tides, and waves could provide twice the world’s current energy use.
• Wave energy alone, using current technology, could provide 15% of the world’s electricity.
• If the United States could harness 40% of the nearshore wave energy, it would capture as much energy as is generated by all freshwater hydropower now available in the U.S.
• The oldest use of ocean energy is from the tides. During their occupation of Great Britain, the Ancient Romans built a dam that captured tidal water and let it flow out through a waterwheel. In Medieval England, use of tidal power was not uncommon.
• The most successful modern tidal power plant is off the coast of Brittany, France, producing 10 million watts ...
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