Patent ID: 8002523

Claim:
A turbine system ( 10 ) for extracting energy from waves in a body of water, said body of water characterized by a direction of prevailing waves ( 24 ), the turbine system comprising: an elongate shaft ( 12 ) rotationally disposed above the surface of said body of water, said shaft defining a longitudinal shaft axis ( 13 ); and a plurality of bucket pairs ( 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ) connected at intervals along the axial length of said shaft, each of said plurality of bucket pairs including a first bucket ( 30 A, 31 A, 32 A, 33 A) and a second bucket ( 30 B, 31 B, 32 B, 33 B) that is disposed 180 degrees about said shaft with respect to said first bucket, said first and second buckets defining first and second longitudinal bucket axes ( 21 ), respectively, each of said plurality of bucket pairs being oriented at a different radial position about said shaft than an adjacent one of said plurality of bucket pairs, said bucket axis of each bucket in each of said plurality of bucket pairs being oriented so that said bucket axis does not lie in a plane that is normal to said shaft axis.