Wave energy, limitless resource or disaster in the making?
PG&E in California announced today that they will be purchasing power from wave energy generators. Basically by exploiting the vertical wave differences, these generators extract energy and turn it into electricity. My question is, by removing the energy the generators act as dampeners and could reduce wave heights. Will this have any affects on the tidal differences and thus the center of gravity of the Earth? Will that affect the gravitational interaction between the moon and us?
I have similar questions regarding large scale wind power affecting local/global weather.
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Think about what happens to the energy in the first place. If the generators aren’t there, what happens to it? They wash up on shore. The energy is converted into sound and heat energy, and thus dissapates anyway. Why would it make a difference if this energy was dampened by the shore or by the generators to anything on the earth, other than the erosion at the actual site of the generators?
No, it would make little to no difference. The percentage of the energy being extracted is too small and insignificant to make any difference.
This is sort of like the effect of a bug being hit by the windshield of a fast car having the effect of slowing the car. It just too insignificant to measure.
The same goes for wind machines affecting the large scale global weather. The energy extracted is to small to measure in comparison to what power is available.