A patent was recently awarded to a new technology domain in marine energy conversion: distributed embedded energy converter technologies (or DEEC-Tec, pronounced deck-tech, for short), which can generate clean power from ocean and river waves, currents, and tides. Unlike standard single generators that convert ocean energy into electricity, DEEC-Tec uses many tiny converters to form one larger, often flexible energy converter (e.g., balloons that contract and expand or paddles that twist and bend in the ocean). The flexible nature of the DEEC-Tec domain means that it could be lighter and more cost-effective than traditional wave energy converters. In addition, DEEC-Tec could eventually transform sources of everyday energy, including almost all physical motions or dynamic shape changes, into electricity or other forms of usable energy.
A newly patented technology domain could build large, flexible structures from individual energy converters to create more cost-effective, highly efficient tools for generating clean energy from the ocean (and beyond). Illustration by Besiki Kazaishvili, NREL
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