内容摘要：CalWave has been working on its xWave clean power technology for many years now, and has announced t

CalWave has been working on its xWave clean power technology for many years now, and has announced the successful conclusion of an extended open-ocean test off the coast of San Diego, in which the device demonstrated over 99% system uptime.

Wave energy is one of the less common renewable energy sources, and while there are many wave energy projects under development, the industry itself can be considered more or less embryonic at this stage. There's some promise in it; as CalWave points out, "ocean waves are 20-60 times more energy-dense, predictable and consistent compared to other forms of renewable energy."

On the other hand, extracting that energy is proving tricky. The ocean is a famously harsh environment for man-made objects, and energy assets need to pay off their significant capital expenses over decades of continuous operation to attract investment dollars. Most projects seem to stay in the testing phase for an awfully long time, and nothing to date has managed to go commercial on a grand scale.

CalWave is probably a good example; this company has been announcing the successful completion of tests since at least as far back as 2016, when it had a miniature 1/20th-scale model running in a test basin. The xWave is a boxy, buoyant little platform that's towed out to sea and anchored to the sea floor, with a tether length that holds it fully underwater.