A company with ambitions to supply utilities with wave power from the oceans is starting trials of its largest device yet.
New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. said it has started ocean trials of the first of its new generation utility-scale PowerBuoy device, the PB150. With a peak-rated power output of 150 kilowatts the PB150 is the largest and most powerful wave power device designed by OPT to date.
The ocean trials are being conducted at a site approximately 33 nautical miles from Invergordon, off Scotland’s northeast coast, and are expected to last up to three months. A broad range of operations and functional tests are being performed. A second PB150 is under construction in the United States for an anticipated utility-scale project in Oregon, and the company is involved in other planned projects in North America, Australia, Japan and Europe that would utilize the PB150 PowerBuoy.
Says Charles F. Dunleavy, CEO of OPT,
“This achievement represents a pivotal stage in the Company’s commercialization of its PowerBuoy technology. The sea-trials are progressing well and, along with the PB150’s independent certification by Lloyd’s Register, underscore our efforts to consistently lay the groundwork for ocean-survivable systems and predictable wave power generation.”
The company says power generation data it has collected further validates Ocean Power’s experience in Hawaii with its grid-connected PowerBuoy system, demonstrating the device’s ability to produce the level of power expected to be generated in varying conditions, and to predict power accurately for different-sized PowerBuoys, at a range of sites.
OPT now has two PowerBuoys operating in separate oceans. There is the grid-connected PowerBuoy in Hawaii, and the new one in Scotland. A second PB150 PowerBuoy is to be built in Reedsport, Oregon.
You can view an animation of the OPT Powerbuoy farm HERE.
A wave data buoy located near the site provides detailed information regarding incoming waves. Data collected during the trials is being transmitted from the PowerBuoy in real-time for analysis by OPT’s engineers in both the U.K. and the U.S.
The power produced to date in this commissioning phase has been as planned, and is consistent with the test protocols and OPT’s predictive models for the wave environment experienced. On-board equipment duplicates grid-connection conditions to ensure the buoy’s electrical systems are subject to full operational testing for utility applications.
According to a recent report, the sector has more than 45 wave and tidal prototypes expected to be ocean tested in 2010 and 2011, after only a dozen were installed in 2009. Early success would mean the industry is ready to scale up, with some estimates that more than 1.8 gigawatts of ocean projects in 16 countries are currently in the pipeline.
It appears that what Ocean Power Technologies is doing is merely the beginning.
COMMENTARY: I haven't posted a blog post about ocean wave power generation for quite sometime. I think Ocean Power Technologies has an above average chance of becoming a reliable source of plentiful, reliable and cheap electrical power. Judging from the number of ocean wave energy plants located in different parts of the globe, a lot of companies are taking wave energy very seriously. Can hardly wait to see how their new Powerbuoy wave energy farms in Scotland and Hawaii do.
Courtesy of an article dated may 10, 2011 appearing in RenewablesBiz
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