Two private Scottish companies plan to install wave energy machines along Scotland’s west coast, one in the next few months and another by 2002. According to a report by the U.K. government, the cost of harnessing wave power has fallen dramatically in the last 17 years, making it almost commercially viable. The U.K. this year resumed government funding for wave power research, after it had been dropped in the 1970s. In other alternative energy news, Pres. Clinton is expected this week to give a boost to biomass with an executive order that would spur research on producing fuels and chemicals from plants and crop residues. Research into the mass production of biomass fuels could help them become competitive with petroleum.
