'Old fogies' obsession: Turning waves into power

One of my favorite passages:<p>"We were sitting around saying we can't understand why America isn't doing better in renewable energy," says Fred Lightfoot, 82, an allegedly retired electrical engineer from Bremerton. "And then we thought: 'Hey, we're engineers. Instead of complaining, as we usually do, why don't we come up with something?' "

How could we bootstrap a start-up based on these ideas? Is it possible?<p>We'd need a small injection of cash to build a small system that produces a small amount of fuel that can be sold to raise enough money to maintain the existing system with a little to spare. That small amount of extra money can then go into building another one, then another.<p>After building 10 it becomes moderately profitable, and then we move on to building a bigger version.<p>How do the sums pan out? How big doe this have to be? How are they converting electricity/water/CO2 into methanol?<p>I would <i>so</i> like to see this happen.