Pacific Gas & Electric Co of California is now the first U.S. utility to commit to buying electricity generated from wave power. Finavera Renewables of Canada will build and install the systems off the Humboldt shores.
While the amount of power to be produced is just 2 megawatts, wave power could prove to be an important source of renewable energy. From the pdf on their site, quoting an LA Times article.
Finavera, based in Vancouver, is one of many companies chasing technologies designed to harness the force of the ocean to produce power. Some hope to tap the sea’s below-surface tidal forces, some target the power of breaking waves, and Finavera and others have focused on surface waves offshore.