What's a wave farm, you ask?

No, it's not the newest water park down the street.  

No, it's not the latest surfing hot spot.

Portugal will get the world's first 'wave farm' in 2006.

What is a wave farm, you ask? A hell of a good idea.
A wave farm uses natural wave undulation to generate electricity. 400 foot long cylinders that float off shore use the up, down and sideways sloshing of the ocean to pump high pressure fluids into hydraulic motors that, in turn, produce energy in generators.

The first phase, three generators, will produce enough electricity for 1,500 homes. More are planned WHEN (rather than if) this first phase proves successfull.

Way to go, Portugal. This is such a great idea, and exactly the kind of innovation we need to be putting our investments and energies into. Imagine... no power plants, no sexy clean coal (see below), no nuclear power plants... wave farms off shore, wind farms and solar farms rather than spewing toxic waste into our air, our water, our lungs and our bodies.

What a wonderful world it would be...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/20/norway.wave.power.ap/index.html

http://screamingme.blogspot.com/