Pffft! Planned obsolescence worked so great for GM, they caused Toyota and Ralph Nader. And the whole damned industry still suffers from excess capacity.

Filling all the best spots with PB500s in the next decade or so would keep the company plenty busy - the longer they last, the better they compete with fossil fuels economically, especially as dwindling supply reminds everyone why dwindling supply sucks. If OPTT ever can honestly say that the buoys will last 200 years, are cheap-to-service, and have relatively cheap replacement parts, they'll be able to lock in an outstanding profit margin and will be selling them as fast as they can make them. There are a lot of coastal cities; once the world has as many bouncy pots as are profitable to make and use, the company will likely have to find something new to do (retire stinky rich?) - but this whole scenario is laughably optimistic - my point is that making longevity/easy-maintenance improvements are in their best interest, and they've said as much.

To convince the market not to scoff at a $10-20 pps, the company doesn't need any 200 year running experiments...they simply need to make a convincing case for a solid return on investment. The demo sites will prove (or challenge) the notion that the technology can power hundreds of homes. If that mostly goes well, practically and PR-wise, expect a significant increase in funding from governments - that should get pps back to SPO-2007 levels pretty easily. The start of mass production of PB500 farms is the jackpot for longs, but is years away.