Beaver Island sits in the middle of the northernmost end of Lake Michigan, not far from the Canadian border. The forested island, just a little bigger than San Francisco in size, is a popular summer destination for tourists and home to about 600 permanent residents. Getting there requires a boat or plane ride.
Getting electricity to the island isn’t as easy. Power comes from mainland Michigan through cables that cross roughly 30 miles of lake bed. Outages are common during extreme weather, or when there are problems with the sensitive wires. The devastating ice storm that walloped the state last year knocked out power to the island for weeks.
That’s got some residents hoping to see a more reliable source of power that’s generated where they live. Turns out, there’s an abundant source nearby: the waves that surround the island.
Earlier this month, researchers from the University of Michigan gathered on the shoreline to deploy two devices that convert the kinetic energy of waves into electricity. The gadgets — prototypes that look like small boats framed with PVC pipes and are about the size of a yoga ball — demonstrated their potential by powering a light bulb and charging a cell phone.
The project is one of many efforts across the country to use alternative sources of energy to improve reliability in remote places. In this case, the researchers spent two years gathering input from residents, who said providing a dependable source power to the airport was a priority.
“We need to work with the community together to identify the need and design together with them,” said Lei Zuo, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan and the lead researcher on the project.
Several residents already power their homes and businesses with solar panels or geothermal energy, and the island has previously received federal funds to improve access to renewables. Similar programs and grid modernization plans face an uncertain future as the Trump administration cancels grants and programs, raising questions about how such projects will be funded in the years ahead.
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Efforts to improve reliability are underway in remote communities across the country. The small Native village of Galena, Alaska, for example, is investing in solar and biomass to reduce reliance on diesel fuel and provide a stopgap against extreme weather. Beaver Island hopes to do the same.
“It’s a combination of looking at cost savings and also wanting to be independent and not dependent on the mainland for everything,” said Seamus Norgaard, who lives on the island during the summer. “And then also the environmental outlook.”
Beaver Island isn’t the only community looking for greater energy independence. Residents of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, for instance, developed a community-owned solar microgrid after Hurricane Maria. The system, which can keep electricity running when the island’s rickety grid inevitably fails, has become a model for other places looking to improve reliability using locally generated power.
Even so, wave power might not become anyone’s sole source of power, said Dan Hellin, director of PacWave, an offshore testing facility in Oregon. But “finding something that works within the region is critical,” he said. “It’s developing a whole suite of renewables and applying them based on local conditions.”
Despite the technology’s potential, it isn’t widely used because of how expensive it is and hard it can be to deploy. It also is still new, and there isn’t a standardized design yet, Hellin said.
Funding is another challenge. Most wave energy projects in the U.S. are funded by the federal government. The Michigan experiment is backed by National Science Foundation grants awarded two years ago. But marine energy — which falls under hydropower — has escaped some of the Trump administration’s animosity toward renewables, Hellin said. “It’s not on the radar in the same way.”
Early in his second term, President Donald Trump included hydropower among the domestic energy sources his administration would prioritize for regulatory fast-tracking and support. The Department of Energy’s rebranded Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office said it will use $220 million appropriated by Congress to continue such research.
The University of Michigan wave project joins efforts in other parts of the country to push wave power technology toward commercialization. The team behind it has a similar project underway in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Beyond PacWave’s work in Oregon, a company called CalWave has tested devices off the California coast, and Hawai‘i has hosted a testing site for more than a decade.
University of Michigan researchers Saeid Bayat (left) and Hanzhi Mou prepare to demonstrate their prototype wave energy converters to the residents of Beaver Island. Marcin Szczepanski / University of Michigan Engineering
Although waves on the Great Lakes are smaller and more seasonal than those on oceans, Saeid Bayat with the University of Michigan said research on these inland seas could help improve this technology as a whole. I’s also an ideal experimental bathtub. “The Great Lakes provide real-world wave conditions while being much easier, safer, and less expensive to access than most ocean sites,” Bayat said.
Back on Beaver Island, the team will continue improving the prototype. It plans to install a final version in the coming years, and Norgaard is among those eager to see that happen. “There is that excitement about these new futures and cleaner sources, and more locally produced, dependable sources of energy.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline This island in the Great Lakes wants to tap waves for energy on Jun 25, 2026.
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