SRI demonstrates ocean wave-powered generator

SRI International recently completed a successful wave power test in the Monterey Bay off the coast of Santa Cruz, CA.   According to SRI, the wave-powered generator is unique in that it uses SRI's Electroactive Polymer Artificial Muscle (EPAM) technology, a rubbery material that can generate electricity by simply being stretched and allowed to return to its original shape. This "artificial muscle" technology can generate electricity directly from the motion of waves without the need for complicated and costly hydraulic transmissions that are typically found in other wave-power generators.   An earlier version of the generator was deployed in August 2007, in Tampa Bay, Florida. The Tampa Bay experiment used a generator design that was intended to show how the EPAM technology could supply electricity to existing buoys, such as navigation buoys, and eliminate the need to replace large numbers of costly batteries.   San Jose Mercury News highlighted that the 10-foot-tall buoy has two levers that rise and fall with waves and generate electricity by flexing bendable slabs of rubber-like material. The generator currently produces 20 joules per second and the team is at least five years away from producing a larger commercial version of the device.