Ocean Power Rising | Green Energy News

November 6, 2005 – Vol.10 No.33

OCEAN POWER RISING.

With two-thirds of the planet covered by oceans powerful enough to destroy cities or kill tens of thousands in an instant, no wonder many think the oceans could and should be tapped as a reliable source of energy.

Yet the power of the oceans also makes the deployment of ocean energy systems difficult. Storms, the corrosive action of salt water, even the sometimes frigid water of the oceans add to the difficulty of developing successful ocean energy technologies.

Energetech of Australia, with operations in Rhode Island in the U.S., has announced that tests of a full scale wave energy device in Port Kembly, Australia have produced results much better than expected.

In testing on October 26, the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device was calculated to have generated 321 kilowatts of power with two-meter waves smashing in at 7 second periods against the device. The power output was a 20 percent improvement from laboratory testing. Engineers had expected only 268 kilowatts. Power from the test device was used on-board to desalinate water.

The Oscillating Water Column (OWC) ocean wave generator includes a parabola-shaped wall to amplify the energy of incoming waves. Waves crashing into the wall push air in a chamber through a turbine which generates electricity. As the wave collapses air is pulled though the chamber backwards and the turbine reverses itself while still producing electricity.

The company says a full scale project could be built that would power up to 1500 homes. Visit Energetech at http://www.energetech.com.au/