Hybrid Living

A project to build the country's first wave power station off the coast of Oregon is finally moving forward.  Wave power company Ocean Power Technologies just signed a contract with Oregon Iron Works to start building 10 buoys, with the first one to be deployed a year from now off the coast of Reedsport.

This project will test the capabilities of the buoys in the area before the company goes forward with a 200-buoy project nearby.  Within two years all ten buoys should be deployed and generating power for PNGC Power, the utility that is purchasing all that clean energy.  The system will have a capacity of about 1.5 MW and OPT expects to sell the power for about 15 cents/kWh.

Here's hoping OPT has better luck than its predecessors. Finavera, another wave power company, had a 40-ton buoy of theirs sink off the coast of Oregon two years ago after only two months at sea.

The projects success could mean great things for the future of wave power in America.  Studies have shown that wave power, and wave power alone, could power the world twice over, so needless to say, it's something we want to tap into.

via Green Inc.