No affiation, but a former colleague works there.
I wonder if the tether could carry air to establish positive pressure in the vehicle body, against leaks. Buoyancy from the sea floor should provide all the pressure needed.
Thanks, I hadn't seen 4ehT-ZTHFGg - posted only 6 days ago.
It would still expose a bunker to surface waves, but anyway it has no exterior moving parts. I am surprised they did not shape it to avoid absorbing direct strikes on the outside -- something more dolphin-shaped.
It says something when a random passersby can suggest major design improvements on a few minutes' acquaintance, but it is a common feature of almost all proposed renewable energy generation and storage technologies.
The incentive structure for proposals and grants seems to enforce extreme overcomplication in order to seem "novel". There seems to be no space for simplicity.
I'd be interested if Wave Swell Energy have any plans to develop the idea more along the lines you've described, now they've somewhat proven the concept, or if they're planning on sticking with the current design, which would seem to have only niche use in remote areas that are underserved by grid supply, and suffer poor wind / solar viability for at least some part of the year. So probably nowhere.
Looking at failed wave-power startups, I find some common features:
In offshore wind, the expensive parts -- turbines -- are both offshore and duplicated, and the tower is very big and expensive. On the plus side, the turbines are held well away from salt water, and their mechanical operation is simple (although feathering the blades adds complexity). The power transmission tie-in is at or under the water, but has no moving parts, and can be shared with lots of turbines. It is not surprising that the bigger and taller wind turbines are, the better they get. One big turbine a mile high ought to do best, if you could build it.Tidal has underwater turbines with expensive generators inside, duplicated, but it is anyway protected from surface insults. Are tidal projects mainly government sponsored?
It strikes me that the sweet spot for wave power would be a system where moving parts are under the surface and protected from breaking waves, where any needed mechanical parts are extremely simple and reliable, and where any expensive, fragile or high-maintenance parts are onshore and indoors.
Thus, I would have high hopes for a system anchored sub-surface that pushes air or water through a culvert/plenum to a turbine in a regular building on-shore. A single plenum, turbine, and generator could serve a whole fleet of energy-collection units out in the water. Closed-loop air, or at least dry air sourced from on shore, is appealing vs. moving sea water or sea air through a turbine, which turbines don't like so much.
Thus, I like
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m6MJpiUEKaU
and
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yfSAN-2pz9w
although I would want the turbine part moved onshore and shared. The latter is uniquely interesting as it takes advantage of not just waves' vertical motion, but their horizontal progression. The V shape is interesting as it takes energy from a wide front of the wave.
This one
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehT-ZTHFGg
is getting hype lately, but checks all the loser boxes.