WAVE ENERGY ROLLING SLOWLY IN

Wave Energy Developers Line Up for Hawaii Test Site

Pete Danko, November 5, 2014 (Breaking Energy)

“…[A]t least three full-scale wave energy converters, all intended to produce significant grid power when deployed in arrays, are now in line to be tested in Hawaii…[Columbia Power Technologies] signed a $3 million contract with the U.S. Navy that will support deployment of the company’s StingRAY device offshore from Marine Corps Base Hawaii Kaneohe Bay…[and the U.S. Department of Energy just] selected Northwest Energy Innovations and Ocean Energy to receive a total of $10 million to deploy devices at the same test site, on the windward side of Oahu…The Wave Energy Test Site in Hawaii will feature two grid-connected berths…[but it isn’t yet] clear when exactly the three devices…[will] go in the water…[and] there could actually be a fourth device bound for Hawaii, through another Navy contract…[T]he StingRAY and [Northwest’s] Azura are broadly similar – both are point absorbers, the most common format for deep-water wave energy generation…Ocean Energy uses an entirely different technology, known as oscillating water column…All of these devices – along with others being tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland and elsewhere – are striving against some tough odds to advance the proposition of wave energy for utility-scale generation…” click here for more

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