The innovative (and controversial) UK “wave hub“, in essence a giant plug on the ocean floor, has received approval. The UK government has will install this plug to allow wave power companies to feed energy back into the grid. The £28 million ($56.5 million) project has cleared the last major regulatory hurdle and will begin construction soon.

The project is opposed by surfers who think that it will remove too much energy from the water and hurt wave action. Something that seems unlikely given the massive amount of energy in wave action, and the relatively small amount that is removed for wave energy projects. After passing three environmental impact tests it seems the British government also feels confident of minimal environmental impact.

Wave and tidal power could provide 3 percent of Britain’s electricity by 2020, according to the government-backed Carbon Trust.
The installation is expected to generate up to 20 megawatts of energy, enough to power 7,500 homes and eliminate 300,000 tonnes of CO2 over 25 years. Four companies have already been selected to build projects at the hub.

This sort of minor investment in infrastructure is the kind of thing that governments should be doing to support renewable energy. 56.5 million dollars is what we spend on a couple bombs in Iraq. We could easily find a couple good spots off the cost of the US and throw up a couple wave hubs of our own, this would in turn spark the private sector to develop wave energy devices that use this infrastructure. Similarly we should be investing in transmission lines for wind turbines and solar projects in remote areas.

A minor investment can help spark industry which creates more jobs, and produces more clean renewable energy, which fights global warming, which makes everyone happier.