Anyone who has ever read my blog, seen my Instagram, or met me in person knows: The ocean is hugely important for me. The ocean is important for my mental health, looking at water just makes me happy and calm and content. The ocean is also the foundation of life on this planet: It supplies more than half the oxygen we breathe, it moderates temperatures such that I am happy to go swimming in Kiel fjord all year round (ok, that’s also because I am slightly insane), it provides us with food, work, goods.

Today, on World Oceans Day, let’s celebrate the ocean by looking at one specific aspect in which it is amazing, and that is in how much energy it contains. In heat that is stored in it. In dissolved salts. In its movement. You know I am addicted to wave watching, but there is so much more you can do with waves than just watch them, even though that’s not as easy at it seems.

One of my favourite wave watching spots is a broken prototype of a wave power plant close to my friend Elin’s cabin on an island off Bergen. The location was chosen for the enormous wave power that slams up on the coast here most days, and that’s also why the prototype unfortunately didn’t last very long.

In the movie below you see the spot where a turbine used to sit which would be powered by water pressing air up by being funneled into a sub-sea reservoir, and then sucking air back out when the wave retreats. And you see how, by the way the funnel is built, the not-so-enormous waves outside get translated into quite a change inside that hole. Wait for the splash! Can you imagine the movement of the air column above, where the turbine used to sit?

We weren’t even there on a particularly wavy day, so imagine the powers at work here on days with a lot of waves! The forces at work here are enormous. And just because we haven’t figured out yet how to make wave power work well in the ocean’s harsh environment, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t figureoutable!

Picture by Elsa du Plessis, used with permission

Even looking at these pictures and the movie I feel the effect the ocean has to me — giving me a sense of calm purpose and inspiration. Enjoy your World Ocean Day, and make sure to appreciate some water somewhere today! :-)