In a report published by the World Energy Council in 2005, they estimated that the cost of the energyproduced by wave power would be around 12-16 cents per kWh. However, they predicted that as new technologies are discovered and old devices harnessed, the price would drop to about 5-7 cents per kWh.
The first commercialized wave energy project called LIMPET (Evans), just off the coast of Scotland, sold the energy it produced at about 14 cents per kWh.
As we compare these costs to those of fossil fuels or even hydropower, which BC Hydro now charges 6-9 cents for, we can question the affordability of such an expensive power source. However, one should still keep in mind that as demand for energy goes up and oil supplies become scarce, the cost of energy will also increase. The development of wave power technologies is also estimated to reduce the cost of the power, meaning that the possibility of wave power is definitely in the future.
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