Latest Marine Hydro Technologies at the Energy Ocean Show

Attendees at the Energy Ocean show in Atlantic City, NJ last week received a snapshot of some of the latest technology for extracting the energy from moving ocean water, and a glimpse into how all this is improving year-to-year.  This rapid rate of change is a double-edged sword however, insofar as it means certain doom for companies that obstinately hang onto first-generation technologies, when the second and third generations come along.

That, in a nutshell, is what happened to OPT, an Oregon-based developer of an ocean-buoy-to-electricity solution.  The whole concept of buoys is still alive, but the actual technology by which all this takes place has been improved substantially since it was initially conceived, and OPT, unable to adopt the new approach, sank like a stone.