UK-based company Orecon has devised a large-scale buoy to harvest power from wave energy and has also nailed down $24million in funding from Advent Ventures, Venrock, Wellington Partners and Northzone Ventures to build a full-scale prototype.

The device will work through pressure built up by the waves striking it which will turn a turbine and generate electricity. It is estimated that each of the devices will be capable of generating 1.5 MW of power - on it’s own not a particularly significant sounding figure. But it’s a vast ocean out there and a sizable wave power farm would be able to generate significant levels of electricity, carbon emissions free and, according to the company, for a minimum of 25 years.

A commercially viable wave power system based around the Orecon venture won’t be available until at least sometime between 2010 and 2015, but we can expect to see more and more ventures like this one over the next two to three years.

Wave Power’s only just beginning to take off, read about other new developments on the wave power page.