Overtopping Wave Energy Converters: general aspects and stage of development

Wave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work, for example for electricity generation, water desalination, or the pumping of water (into reservoirs). For these and many other reasons, technologies to exploit wave resource are increasingly developing, especially in the recent years, and the wave power could potentially represent a very practical solution. Devices able to generate electricity exploiting the energy of the waves are commonly called Wave Energy Converter (WEC). At the moment exist a variety of technologies to capture the energy from waves; one of these is the one of the Overtopping Converters. An Overtopping device captures sea water of incident waves in a reservoir above the sea level, then releases the water back to sea through turbines connected to a generato