Energy futuresStudy to assess use of wave turbines along U.S. coastline
A Scottish company will deploy its wave-power technology along the Oregon coast for a feasibility study of wave power; the state of Oregon has given the company a grant to measure and record the frequency, intensity and height of waves as they approach the Oregon shoreline
Wave-energy company Aquamarine Power hopes to deploy its U.K.-designed technology along the Oregon coastline in the United States.
The firm’s U.S. subsidiary, Aquamarine Power USA, has received a grant of $50,000 (£31,000) from the Oregon Wave Energy Trust (OWET) for a feasibility study into using the company’s Oyster wave turbine off the shore of the west coast state.
The grant is intended to help deploy Acoustic Doppler Current Profile (ADCP) devices that measure and record the frequency, intensity and height of waves as they approach the Oregon shoreline. Aquamarine Power will be searching for local vessels to deploy the devices.
Aquamarine was one of four companies to be awarded a grant by OWET under its OWET Industry Matching Program. For the past four months, the company’s Oregon-based team has been liaising with local communities on the most suitable locations to install arrays of Oyster devices.
John Fedorko, director of Aquamarine Power USA, said: “These crucial extra funds will allow us to study and record Oregon’s immense wave-power potential, and the money helps us with one of the most important items in the development process: proving the wave resource at a given site.”
Jason Busch, executive director of OWET, said: “These feasibility grants have been awarded to companies with proven technology to help develop projects or make wave-energy technology more efficient, longer lasting and cheaper.”
The Oyster device uses an oscillating wave surge pump deployed at near-shore depths of 24 to 48ft, to deliver high-pressure water to the shore where it is converted to electrical power using hydro-electric generators.
Aquamarine Power UK is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company installed its Oyster 1 wave device in Orkney, Scotland, in 2009 and plans to deploy its next-generation Oyster 2 in Orkney in the summer of 2011.
