ATLANTIC CITY — With offshore wind power nearly dead in the water, New Jersey wants to study the power-generation potential of ocean waves in an effort that could center on the Steel Pier.

Two lawmakers, including a former city mayor, are sponsoring a bill that would direct the state Board of Public Utilities to conduct a study of the energy-generating potential of ocean waves and tides.

The board would be required to solicit and approve a pilot project involving wave and tidal energy.

"It's really about as clean as you can get," said Assemblyman Don Guardian, the Republican former mayor of Atlantic City. "There's always some sort of wave energy."

No one expects wave energy to replace the large-scale potential of offshore wind, where most projects were designed to power a half-million homes or more.

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But lawmakers think it's worth a look to see how much of a benefit it could provide, and at what cost.

"We've been talking about this for a couple years now," said Assemblyman Rob Karabinchak, D-Middlesex. "I’m a true believer, and so is Don, that we need a matrix of different energy sources, not just one or two. That won’t work, and we’re seeing that now. The offshore wind farms would have been a good resource for us, but that’s not happening.

"Can it be as big as wind or nuclear? No, but it fills a gap," Karabinchak said. "Those waves going up and down are happening 24/7, every single day.”

Wave energy is generated in several ways, including the use of devices called point absorber buoys.

According to the Forth Worth, Texas-based wave power company BKV Energy, the buoys use a floating cylinder to capture the vertical movement of waves, which is then harnessed through a cable anchored to the sea bed. This up-and-down motion is transformed into electricity via converters.

Another technology uses oscillating water columns that use the rise and fall of waves to compress air, which then drives a turbine to produce electricity.

A third technology uses so-called "overtopping devices" to harness wave energy by allowing waves to flow into a reservoir, which then releases the water through turbines to generate electricity.

"Ocean waves contain tremendous energy," the U.S. Energy Information Administration says on its website. "The theoretical annual energy potential of waves off the coasts of the United States was estimated to be as much as 2.64 trillion kilowatt hours, which is equal to about 63% of the total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation in 2023."

It says the west coasts of the United States and Europe and the coasts of Japan and New Zealand have potential sites for harnessing wave energy.

However, the outlook might not be as promising for the U.S. East Coast, according to Dr. Reza Marsooli, a professor at New Jersey's Stevens Institute of Technology.

"The western North Atlantic Ocean is generally not well-suited for wave energy harvesting because it lacks consistent, high-energy waves throughout the year when the high cost of energy harvesting is accounted for," he said. "The West Coast is a more ideal environment due to its exposure to stronger and more persistent waves and swells."

The main goal of the bill is to try it in New Jersey and see how well it works. And Atlantic City's historic Steel Pier could be at the center of the effort.

The lawmakers approached the pier's owner, Anthony Catanoso, who is willing to give it a try. The pier was at one point poised to receive one or more wind turbines in an experimental program when offshore wind had more political and public support in New Jersey.

"We’re not opposed to helping if it can further the alternative energy industry," Catanoso said of the wave project. "We were going to put windmills on the pier at one point; I’m glad we didn’t.

“Assemblyman Guardian came to me and said, ‘You’ve got the perfect setup. This pier is 1,000 feet out into the ocean; it’s built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane,'" Catanoso said. "It makes sense for here. If there’s any benefit as far as energy, we’ll get that benefit, whether it goes into a battery or back into the grid.”

The design and near-shore location of the wave energy devices could avoid some of the vocal opposition from shore communities, the fishing industry and their elected representatives.

But foes of offshore wind initially reacted warily to the wave power project.

"We oppose all industrial exploitation of our ocean and shores," said Robin Shaffer, president of Ocean City-based Protect Our Coast New Jersey. "Wave energy technology has been tried elsewhere, with mixed results. Shouldn’t we be implementing proven, affordable and reliable energy technologies?

"Putting turbines underwater is no better than putting them above the waves," he said. "New Jersey’s working families deserve a break from the net-zero ambitions of climate activists. Enough already! It’s time Trenton worked on common sense energy and environmental solutions."

Elsewhere in the U.S., the Pacific Marine Energy Center, a collaboration between several universities, is testing emerging wave energy technologies, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has supported projects to advance wave energy technologies.

Around the world, China’s first independently developed megawatt-scale floating wave energy generation device, Nankun, began trial operations in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, in 2023.

There are pilot projects being deployed or designed in Argentina, Uruguay, France, Portugal, Australia, Ireland, Gibraltar and Japan, among other places.

"All this is doing is studying if this is feasible," Guardian said. "If this is a billion-dollar program that can't provide energy at a low cost, then it's a dead issue. This is in its infancy, and it would be nice to jump on it without committing ourselves to build something we don't know anything about."

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