What looks like a 590-foot, orange caterpillar spends its days undulating on the frothy tips of waves here as they break several hundred yards off the rocky coast. Its name is Pelamis, a device designed by three energy visionaries to turn wave energy into electricity.
Its five segments move up and down with the waves, and universal joints linking them allow the machine to flex in two directions. When really big waves loom, Pelamis dives beneath them with the grace of a sea otter and resurfaces again to make more juice.
