Wave Energy is one of the niche Water Energy Technologies that is still in its infancy stage in terms of technology maturity.Wave Energy has been around a long time with around 350 patents being granted for this technology and more than 100 startups working on this renewable energy form.However only 2-3 companies are operating commercial wave power plants and very few companies have received funding to build demonstration projects Wave Energy basically derives power from the movement of waves to generate electricity or power.Wave Power exists due to the differences in the speed of ocean water and wind power.The energy is transferred by the Wind Energy to the Waves which can be utilized to generate power.A wide variety of wave energy generators like buoys,underwater devices are being developed to harness the power of the waves in a cost efficient manner.Wave Energy Research is concentrated mainly in the United Kingdom which has made tidal and wave power central to meeting its 2020 European goal for renewable energy.Edinburgh in UK has become a center of wave energy development and EMEC has developed Cornwall as an important site for demonstration of wave energy projects.Some of the wave power companies are listed on the stock market as well.Due to the technology immaturity ,most of these stocks are micro cap and not an investible class for big investors.

Read about the pros and cons of wave energy.

Also read about offshore wind companies

Top Wave Energy Companies

Wave Energy Companies in Edinburgh,Scotland and UK

1. Pelamis Wave Power Ltd is the most advanced wave energy company and has already demonstrated its Generation 1 Pelamis Wave Generators off the coast of Portugal.It is now devlopeding a 25 MW wave energy farm off the same area using its Pelamis 2 Wave Generators which are more advanced. It was the world’s first commercial scale machine to generate electricity to the grid from offshore wave energy and the first to be used commercially.Alongwith giant German utility E.On it is testing a P2 Pelamis machine over three years at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).The machine floats semi-submerged on the surface of the water and is made up of a number of cylindrical sections joined together by hinged joints.  As waves pass down the length of the machine these sections flex relative to one another.  The motion at each hinged joint is resisted by hydraulic cylinders which pump fluid into high pressure accumulators allowing electrical generation
2. Aquamarine Power  is an Edinburgh based company that has developed the Oyster wave energy machine.In 2007, they  secured an investment of £6.3 million from major utility SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy plc). It has secured seabed leases to capture up to 40MW of wave energy off the west coast of Lewis.Aquamarine Power’s Oyster wave power technology captures energy in nearshore waves and converts it into clean sustainable electricity. Essentially Oyster is a wave-powered pump which pushes high pressure water to drive an onshore hydro-electric turbine.
3. AWS Ocean Energy is a leading company based in Scotland .It is backed by Alstom which bought a 40% stake in the compay.Its showpiece wave energy device is that AWS-III: A multi-cell array of flexible membrane absorbers which covert wave power to pneumatic power through compression of air within each cell. The cells are inter-connected, thus allowing interchange of air between cells in anti-phase. Turbine-generator sets are provided to convert the pneumatic power to electricity.AWS Ocean Energy has received  £350,000 from the UK government
4. Wavebob is an Ireland based company.It produces the Wavebob wave energy converter (WEC) which is a oscillating point absorber designed to convert wave energy into low cost electricity.Wavebob has entered into a Joint Venture with Vattenfall AB of Sweden and Bord Gais of Ireland to develop commercial wave farms off the west coast of Ireland.Wavebob has employed an “Open Innovation” model which strategically leverages internal and external research capabilities.

Wave Energy Companies in USA

1. Ocean Energy Industries is a Florida based company that has been founded for the purpose of manufacturing and commercializing WaveSurfer systems WaveSurfer’s™ is an offshore system, “point absorber” installed on a variety of depths by mooring. WaveSurfer’s  main power conversion and generation parts are completely submerged at the depth of between 8 m (27 ft) and 25 m (80 ft).
2. Ocean Power Technologies was started in 1994 .Its wave energy machine uses the PowerBuoy technology, capturing wave energy using large floating buoys anchored to the sea bed.The Company completed its US IPO and listing on Nasdaq in April 2007, and is traded on Nasdaq under the symbol “OPTT”. OPT’s sells 2 products a) PB150 PowerBuoy – The first utility-scale 150 kiloWatt (kW) PowerBuoy was set up off the northeast coast of Scotland for ocean trials while  A second PB150 PowerBuoy is being fabricated in Portland, Oregon b) PB500 PowerTower – OPT is currently developing the PowerTower™, a PowerBuoy that will have a capacity rating of more than 500kW per installed unit.he US Department of Energy (DOE) and the UK’s South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) are funding several stages of the PB500 development program.
3. Atargis Energy Inc. was founded in 2010 .It sells the Cycloidal Wave Energy Converter.which extracts energy from ocean waves, and converts it to shaft power. The shaft power can then be used to drive a generator to produce electric energy, or other devices using rotary motion like a pump for reverse osmosis sea water desalination.This technology is currently being transitioned from conceptual idea, simulations and small scale laboratory experiment to larger scale testing
   

Wave Energy Companies in Norway

Pelagic Power AS is a Norwegian company.It has developed W2Power concept which is a  combination of structures for wind and wave power.W2Power is designed from first principles as a true hybrid wind & wave energy conversion plant. Two corners of the triangle support one wind turbine each, and the third corner houses the wave energy power take-off using a Pelton turbine.The platform will be rated at more than 10 MW total in areas with a strong wave climate.

Wave Energy Companies in Australia

1. Carnegie Wave Energy is an Australian Waver Energy Company and is listed on the  ASX.It has developed the patented CETO wave energy technology and raised over $45m to fund the development of the CETO technology .CETO is currently being demonstrated at commercial scale off HMAS Stirling, Australia’s largest navy base, at Garden Island in Western Australia. CETO is the only ocean-tested wave energy technology globally that is both fully submerged and generates power and or desalinated water onshore.The Western Australian Government  has given a $12.5m grant for the Perth Wave Energy Project at Garden Island.The British Columbia Government has given a  Grant of $2 million for a Canadian CETO project.CETO wave power converter is the first unit to be fully-submerged and to produce high pressure water from the power of waves.By delivering high pressure water ashore, the technology allows either zero-emission electricity to be produced (similar to hydroelectricity) or zero-emission freshwater (utilising standard reverse osmosis desalination technology).
2. Oceanlinx is was earlier known as Energetech until 2007, Oceanlinx has been designing and deploying wave energy systems since 1997. The company has developed both a shallow water version of its technology, named greenWAVE, and a corresponding deep water version named blueWAVE. Oceanlinx’s core patented technology is an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device.Oceanlinx claimes to be the only one out of two wave technology developers with full-scale devices that have been deployed to convert the energy in ocean waves into electricity

Ocean Wave Power Stocks

Note there are only very few ocean power stocks

The 2 stocks that I could find was

1. OPTT listed in the US
2. Carnegie Wave Energy listed in Australia

List of All Wave Power Companies by Country (sourc EMEC)