NOV 13

Ocean Power Technologies and the Navy have joined together to create a small wave farm off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii. The company has installed one of its PowerBuoy units one mile off the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corp Base, with plans to install others in the near future to generate 1MW.

The PowerBuoy will be connected to the Oahu grid and Kaneohe Bay will serve as a test site for the Navy, which is hoping to install these units at bases around the world. This project is part of the Navy's larger goal of reducing their dependence on fuel shipments for power.

Ocean Power Technologies has previously installed PowerBuoy units off the coast of Atlantic City, NJ and Santoña, Spain. The units are only 12 feet in diameter and 55 feet long and can be arranged in arrays that generate hundreds of megawatts. The onboard sensors automatically change settings in response to sea conditions. If the buoy encounter very large waves, it automatically powers down until conditions have settled.

The military is often one of the first users of cutting edge technology, so I'm glad to see that they are also eager to utilize something as promising as wave power.

via Ocean Power Technologies

Comments (10)

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Geothermal better in Hawaii
written by Larzen, November 13, 2008

With all the magma flowing around Hawaii, couldn't the Navy squirt water into the ground and get steam back to run steam turbines for greater power than they can get from waves?

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@Larzen
written by ellen, November 13, 2008

Large scale use of geothermal in Hawaii is a very risky proposition indeed. You run the tisk of creating a very large wave (i.e tsunami) as a result of shelf/fault slip, and end up taking out Pacific ocean cities like Los Angeles, Brisbane, Sydney and San Diego.

The risk is very real indeed. Past fault slip events in Hawaii have caused mega tsunamis. You surely don't want to increase that risk.

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Geo? Wave!
written by John, November 14, 2008

They certainly could use Geo, but Geo is very expensive to install, requires lots of eco-studies and exotic materials (Magma is not friendly to most metals)is sensitive to geological shifts and requires a steam plant (expensive, specially trained operators, etc. Hawaii is very, very careful with their eco-system. (and I am very proud of them for that!)

Wave power is cheaper to install, simple, and less of an impact to the environment. Electrical generation is mostly automatic, and it gets tied to the same grid, so the current operators handle it (No new manpower requirements)

Lastly, the Navy likes to keep things simple; they want to invest in a technology that can power lots of their bases - They don't all sit atop a big steaming pile of magma, but they pretty much all have waves nearby...
That's why.

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Nice
written by Jesse Wulthrup, November 14, 2008

Sounds like they might just be on to something here!

jess
www.anonymity.cz.tc

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Like a game
written by Awesome, November 14, 2008

Geothermal? Wave Energy? reminded me Total Annihilation energy Incomes.

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That is until...
written by Irony, November 14, 2008

the big island of floating garbage in the Pacific takes out the buoys...

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written by Free Xbox 360, November 14, 2008

I love waves.

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written by Free Xbox 360, November 14, 2008

I love waves

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written by Deviant Ninja, November 23, 2008

Im always fascinated when I hear about new technologies that will help create new energy resources. Hopefully this will be utilized to its full potential.

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written by FreePS3, March 06, 2009

What kind of post is that? I love waves? Anyway nice read here.

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