Tube test

Giant rubber tubes anchored below the sea's surface could each produce 1MW of power for use in homes in the UK and around the world, according to the technology's developers.

Called the Anaconda because of its long, snake-like shape, the device is being developed and tested at

and could be commercially available in the next five years.

The tube is filled with water and closed at both ends, with one end facing the oncoming waves. A wave hitting the Anaconda's end squeezes it and causes a 'bulge wave' to form inside.

John Chaplin, one of the Southampton engineers testing the device, said it works the same way a pulse is measured.

'It's the same mechanism by which you feel your pulse in your arteries,' he said. 'What happens there is your heart gives a thump and basically a bulge travels down your arteries at a certain speed.'

As the bulge wave runs through the Anaconda, the initial sea wave that caused it runs along the outside of the tube at the same speed, squeezing the tube more and causing the bulge wave to get bigger. This then turns a turbine fitted at the far end of the device, and the power produced is fed to shore via a cable.