Researchers say that fields of house-sized buoys could capture up to 90% of wave energy — and each buoy could provide the power for 'several hundred households'

• A new approach could catch 90% of potentially convertible wave energy
• It's based on a array of dozens of connected buoys, designed to handle different types of waves
• Further research is needed to test its viability

There's potentially a lot of clean, renewable energy locked up in waves, but the challenge is getting it converted into power in a viable way. Now researchers from Germany and Australia have come up with a potential method for capturing way more of the energy produced by the undulating oceans.

The solution (via Interesting Engineering) is big buoys, and lots of them. In simulation models, the researchers showed that a fixed array of 60 connected buoys — with some described as being as large as small houses — could convert 90% of potential ocean wave energy, even with significant variability in wave direction.

These buoys would be like flat drums on the surface...

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