Letters to the Editor: California’s wave motor projects have disappointed before. Will Eco Wave Power fare better?
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To the editor: Wave motors are an old story here in California (“First onshore wave energy project in the U.S. launches in Los Angeles,” Sept. 10). Before that beautiful seaside town of Manhattan Beach acquired its present name, folks called the area Potencia, or “power,” after an 1890s wave motor plant that did not live up to expectations.
During the next decade in 1907, Henry Huntington built his massive Pacific Light and Power Company plant in north Redondo Beach on the border with Hermosa. The plant burned oil to produce electricity to run his vast railroad empire.
That same year, at the south end of Redondo, Fred Starr of San Francisco built a wave motor which, he claimed, would produce as much power as Huntington’s plant and be soot- and smoke-free.
Had the Los Angeles Wave Power and Electric Company been a success 118 years ago, climate change might not be happening at its current rate. But, like the projects in Potencia four miles to the north, the Redondo Beach wave motor was a disappointment.
Let’s all hope the Eco Wave Power is a success.
Douglas Thompson, Hermosa Beach
