The ability to produce rated power year-round is as much a financial challenge as it is a technical one, and is critical if renewable energy is to provide a substantial contribution to the energy portfolio.

The technical challenge is to generate the rated power with the lowest seasonal sea-state - which only requires some math.

The financial challenge is a bigger problem, and boils down to the marginal cost of increased availability - as a combination of not just mechanical reliability but resource availability as well.

Increasing the capacity factor means relying on lower and lower energy states to produce the rated power. This is referred to as under-rating, and might also be thought of as over-powering - it is invariably accomplished by increasing the surface area of the capture component. The marginal cost of surface area then is a measure of the ability of a design to approach full capacity, and that cost is lower with the WaveBlanket than for any other renewable energy device.

This chart helps explain why energy providers have a difficult time accepting renewable energy. Any power source which is unreliable must be "backed-up" by a reliable, temporary generator. Nuclear plants have very high security costs which are not tied to energy output. Hydro Plants become more reliable as the size of the reservoir increases. Fossil fuels may become unreliable soon (see peak oil), but are generally available on a month to month basis. Wind is cheaper than nuclear, but if it were rated at 100% availability, it would become much more expensive than nuclear. Wave energy is generally more available, but also more expensive than wind. Only the WaveBlanket, because of its Specific Power has a low slope of increased costs as the availability is increased.

(Patents Pending)