SharkFest Is A Great Opportunity To Talk About Wave Energy

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Shark lovers are in for a treat this week, as National Geographic’s SharkFest begins unspooling across multiple channels. With attention turned to the ocean, it’s also a great opportunity to catch up on the latest news about wave energy — an infinite, endless source of zero carbon electricity if only someone could figure out how to tap into it.

But First, A Word About Sharks

SharkFest has been earning props for its educational approach to, well, sharks. That includes some new and surprising insights about shark attacks, as featured in the Shark Attack 360 series.

I had a chance to talk with shark expert and marine biologist Dr. Diva Amon about Shark Attack 360, and she underscored some important things that people should know about sharks.

“They are older than the rings of Saturn, they are perfectly involved,” Dr. Amon said. “They are critical for healthy ecosystems including seafood.”

“Shark bites are incredibly rare and are often a case of mistaken identity,” she continued. “You are more likely to be killed taking a selfie.”

“It’s not us who should worry about sharks, they should worry about us,” she added. “We kill about 80 million sharks per year.”

“We need to change our relationship with sharks,” she concluded.

Despite the slaughter taking place on the high seas, Dr. Amon noted that some progress on shark preservation is occurring. The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently added recently added more sharks to its Red List of Threatened Species, she pointed out.

However, Amon also emphasized that the pace of progress needs to accelerate. She emphasized the importance of teaching the up-and-coming generation of students about the role of sharks in the ocean ecosystem, along with catch limits and other top-down policy solutions.

The Wave Energy Connection

In addition to the bloodbath related to commercial fishing, human-caused climate change is another rising risk to shark populations and other predatory species, due to the impact on the ocean ecosystems.

With that in mind, the renewable energy transition can’t happen fast enough for sharks and their growing legions of fans on land. That brings us to wave energy, which has been identified as a formidable, yet untapped, source of zero emission electricity (see lots more wave and tidal energy stories here).

“Ocean waves contain tremendous amounts of power; in the United States, ocean waves carry the equivalent of almost 60% of the United States’ annual electricity needs,” observes the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Despite the copious amount of clean power lying just offshore, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The challenge is to harvest it economically, which requires fending off saltwater and ocean storms along with barnacles and other marine fouling.

It’s been a long, tough slog for wave energy stakeholders, but when I visited the 2023 Ocean Energy Europe conference in The Hague last October, the mood was upbeat about the state of the technology, and everyone was looking forward to a breakthrough year in 2024.

A Breakthrough Year For Wave Energy

One major theme coming out of the Ocean Energy Europe conference was the potential for multi-use platforms to foster a more economical showing for wave energy. Multi-use refers to the idea of piggybacking multiple operations onto offshore infrastructure. Wave energy harvesting devices could be harnessed to offshore wind turbines, for example.

Sure enough, the US wave energy startup CalWave is in the news again, with multi-use front and center.

CalWave crossed the CleanTechnica radar back in 2022, when the Energy Department selected it for part of a $25 million wave energy funding pot. “The firm was selected to refine its trademarked xWave conversion device, on which it is partnering with the American Bureau of Shipping, along with Eaton Corporation, Evergreen Innovations, Fluor, Glosten Associates, Sause Brothers, and Thompson Metal Fab,” CleanTechnica noted.

In the latest development, CalWave has hooked up with the AltaSea ocean technology campus, located at the Port of Los Angeles, to shepherd a whole new wave energy industry into California with a big assist from floating offshore wind technology.

“Recent studies highlight the technological, economic and grid-level benefits of combining floating offshore wind and wave systems by achieving a higher joint capacity factor, creating more local jobs and increasing the utilization of offshore lease areas,” said CalWave Co-Founder and CEO Marcus Lehmann in a press statement dated June 11.

More Wave Energy For California

Also aiding in the effort is the California state legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed Senate Bill 605 into law last October. “The legislation calls for an extensive study and assessment of wave and tidal energy potential off California’s 840-mile coastline,” AltaSea explained.

Not wasting any time, by last October AltaSea — which sponsored the legislation — already lined up more than 30 wave and tidal energy companies to collaborate.

One of those is the Israeli startup Eco Wave Power, which leverages portside infrastructure to cut costs and improve the efficiency of its wave energy technology. As of May, the company was waiting on the Port of Los Angeles and the US Army Corps of Engineers to issue the required licenses for installing its array at the Port.

“As soon as we receive the relevant licenses, we expect a very short implementation time of around 6 months for our first U.S. project,” the company reported in its Q1 2024 statement on May 16.

That’s just for starters. Eco Wave Power also reported that it has completed a three-month feasibility study, motivated by the “rising interest and opportunity” for wave energy in the US. The study describes 77 sites — or more — in the US where Eco Wave Power could deploy its arrays.

So, What’s The Big Surprise About Shark Attacks?

Circling back around to SharkFest, if you want to learn some surprising things about shark attacks, watch Shark Attack 360. Meanwhile, during our conversation Dr. Amon noted a shift to more insightful, educational programming about sharks.

“At the end of the day, sharks fascinate people. That is why there is a week of content on sharks,” Dr. Amon said. “There has been awareness growing but the real change is in terms of the programming. We have a responsibility in the programs we are making.”

“This is an incredibly strong tool, to put science and conservation at the heart of every program,” she concluded.

SharkFest 2024 is airing and streaming on Nat Geo, Disney+, Hulu, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo Mundo, and ESPN2, as well as other Disney platforms including FAST pop-up Channel on ABC and Nat Geo apps.

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Image: The secrets of shark attacks are unveiled on the Shark Attack 360 series during SharkFest 2024 (courtesy of National Geographic).