The world’s first commercial wave farm, located off the coast of Portugal, will use machines called Pelamis Wave Energy Converters to turn the motion of the ocean into electricity. Click here to see how one of these machines works.

Now being readied 3.1 miles off the coast of Portugal, the first commercial wave farm will use the movement of the sea to generate 2.25 megawatts of electricity—enough to meet the
energy needs of more than 1,500 homes—from three 459-foot-long Pelamis Wave Energy Converters. Moored to the seafloor, each machine has four cylindrical pontoon-like segments. Passing waves will cause each machine to undulate like a giant sea snake.