Wave energy catching on

we'll have to ban surfing --- afterall surfers soak up all the energy out of the waves -- don't they?!

PG&E seeks permit for Humboldt, Mendocino
Seeing potential in the waves that buffet the North Coast, the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. plans to file a federal application today to study a swath of ocean off Humboldt Bay for a wave power project.
The preliminary permit application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, plus another for an area off the Mendocino County coast, are the first steps in the possible development of a project to produce electricity. The permits, if granted, act like a mining claim, and would give PG&E exclusive rights to study the areas for three years.
”We are going to take a leadership position and study this technology,” said PG&E Project Manager Greg Lambert.
The Humboldt area is a rectangle 17 miles long and eight miles wide, beginning two miles offshore in depths ranging from 60 to 600 feet.
The actual project would take up about 3 to 4 percent of that 136-square-mile area. But PG&E wants to examine exactly where in that area the conglomeration of wave power generators would best be positioned. Power generated by the buoys or other wave-power devices would send electricity to an onshore substation.
Lambert said a final site for what