Wind and Waves | Green Energy News

September 5, 2004 – Vol.9 No.24

WIND AND WAVES.

The more than 12,000 miles of ocean front property and 90,000 miles of tidal coastline have been a significant factor in the economic success of the United States. Easy access to the oceans opened the U.S. up early in its history to global trade, industry, tourism and recreation. With the importance coastlines to the nation’s economy it’s not surprising that people still flock to the coasts to live, work and play.

Oddly, sources of energy to drive coastal economies are imported from beneath the ground. You’d think that the powerful oceans would be the more obvious choice to energize the coasts.

Hopefully, ocean energy will power the coasts in the future.

Compared with the technological development of wind energy, ocean energy - wave and ocean current - is in its infancy. (Yet both have been harnessed for centuries.)

Ocean energy development for the U.S, is about to move forward, if only to a small degree. Energetech America has announced that it will build a wave energy power generator off the coast of Rhode Island. The first of its kind project for the U.S. will be known as GreenWave Rhode Island.

GreenWave will use Energetech Australia’s oscillating water column (OWC) technology. With OWC, incoming waves are focused and amplified by a parabola shaped wall to increase their energy potential by as much as three times. Amplified waves hitting the center of of the wall force water into a chamber which in turn forces air through a turbine to generate electricity.

The 100 x 120 x 40 foot above-the-waves device will rest on four legs with feet on the ocean floor and held in place by moorings and cables. GreenWave will be built to withstand the worst that Mother Nature can offer - the 100-year storm. Power will be delivered to the nearby grid by buried, undersea cable.

The GreenWave pilot project will be built about a mile from the coast near Point Judith, Rhode Island and is expected to be generating 500 kilowatts of peak power by 2006. Initial funding of $1 million for the $3.5 million project came from the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The University of Rhode Island will be providing oceanographic research. GreenWave will be operated as a not-for-profit organization. A similar OWC project is now underway at Port Kembly, Australia by Energetech, the Australian parent company of the U.S. division. Visit GreenWave and Energetech at http://www.energetech.com.au/