operate

Ocean waves form as wind blows over the surface of open water. Globally, waves contain tremendous amounts of energy. Theoretically, the energy generating potential of waves off the coasts of the U.S. would meet more than 60% of the country’s electricity needs. There are a variety of methods and technologies for tapping into this energy source, but none have reached the point of commercial adoption to date. There are many problems that remain to be solved.

Eco Wave Power, a wave energy company, announced that it has received the necessary permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to operate the first onshore wave energy installation in the United States. The installation will be at the Port of Los Angeles at the facilities of AltaSea, a public-private ocean institute that conducts research on food and energy supply, climate change, and ocean exploration.

The system will utilize eight of Eco Wave Power’s energy floaters that will be installed on the piles of an existing concrete wharf structure on Municipal Pier One. The system will also include an energy conversion unit enclosed in two shipping containers and connected to the floaters. The installation is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of this year.

Floaters draw energy from waves by using their rising and falling motion to generate electricity. The bobbing motion of the floaters compresses and decompresses hydraulic pistons. These transmit hydraulic fluid into land-based accumulators that build up pressure. The pressure rotates a hydraulic motor, which then operates a generator, producing electricity.

The project is a collaboration on the development of wave energy in the Port of Los Angeles between Eco Wave Power and Shell Marine Renewable Program.

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Eco Wave Power secures final USACE permit for its first U.S. wave energy project

Photo courtesy of Eco Wave Power.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Electric vehicles have historically been more expensive than their gas-powered counterparts primarily because of the cost of the batteries that power them. Today’s EV battery packs range in size from about 40 kWh to as much as 200 kWh, where kWh measure the amount of energy stored in pack.

The batteries in EVs are lithium-ion batteries, the same technology used to power cell phones, tablets, and computers. A decade ago, the batteries averaged $668 per kilowatt-hour and packs as large as those in some of today’s vehicles were simply unthinkable from a price standpoint.

Over the years, government subsidies, increased competition, higher volume, improvements in battery technology, and reductions in the cost of raw materials such as lithium have combined to drive continuous and dramatic reductions in battery costs. By March 2022, the average price for lithium-ion batteries was $146 per kWh. This past August, battery costs broke the $100 per kilowatt-hour barrier.

Industry analysts have long maintained that once the $100 barrier has been reached, EVs could achieve price parity with their fossil-fuel counterparts. Electric cars would no longer be more expensive to buy than equivalent gas cars.

Projections are that battery prices will continue to fall by something like 10% a year for the rest of this decade. All else being equal, EVs should be cheaper to buy than gas cars. Of course, they have already been cheaper to operate for a long time.

None of this means that car prices will go down in general. That will depend on trends in inflation and those are pretty hard to predict.

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EVs Set to Match Gas Guzzlers in Price as Battery Costs Plummet

Photo, posted May 9, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wave energy in LA

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EV battery costs continue to drop

Electric vehicles have historically been more expensive than their gas-powered counterparts primarily because of the cost of the batteries that power them. Today’s EV battery packs range in size from about 40 kWh to as much as 200 kWh, where kWh measure the amount of energy stored in pack.

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