Marine energy firm set to make waves in Japan

Marine energy firm Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has announced plans to make a splash in Japan by teaming up with three local companies to build the country's first demonstration wave power station.

The US-headquartered marine energy developer yesterday announced that it has partnered with a consortium comprising Japan's Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding, oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan and Japan Wind Development Co – a developer and operator of wind farms – to work on the project.

The group will assess potential locations for the development, with the goal of building a demonstration plant that will use up to three of OPT's patented PowerBuoys. Under the terms of the partnership, the consortium has agreed to buy the company's equipment for the trial plant.

OPT said the trial facility is intended to provide the basis for a commercial-scale station with a capacity of at least 10MW – enough to power up 3,000 Japanese homes. Power from the wave facility would then be sold to utilities.

Mitsui spokesman Akira Kurosaki noted that "wave power is a very concentrated and predictable source of renewable energy that has great potential for Japan".

The trial facility marks OPT's first project in Japan. Future revenues will come from the sale of OPT licensed technology and components to the group.

OPT's PowerBuoys float in the ocean, where the rise and fall of waves creates kinetic energy that is used to drive electrical generators located in substations on the ocean floor. The generated power is then transmitted ashore through underwater cables.

OPT did not provide a cost estimate or time frame for the demonstration project. However, a Nikkei news report last month, citing unnamed sources, reported that test runs with between 1MW and 2MW of capacity are targeted for 2011, with an operational launch by 2012.

In July, OPT announced that it will install PowerBuoys at the UK's Wave Hub test facility off the Cornish coast.

The company last year deployed a PowerBuoy wave power system off the coast of Hawaii, adding to its existing list of projects in the US and upcoming developments in Spain and Scotland.