Wave energy specialist Ocean Power Technologies announced last week that it has deployed its first PowerBuoy wave power systems off the coast of Hawaii.
The Hawaii project, which is the third site to be targeted by the company, is situated off the coast of Oahu. The device lies a mile off the coast in 100 feet of water.
The project, which was undertaken with $300,000 (£201,000) of funding from the US Navy, involved the deployment of a single PowerBuoy capable of delivering 40kW of power. However, the company hopes that the project could eventually generate up to 1MW of capacity.
The PowerBuoy systems work using a piston, which collects kinetic energy as the unit bobs in the water. This is then relayed to the coast using an underwater cable. The units are mostly underwater, which the company says reduces the visual impact of the wave farms.
This is one of three projects in which Ocean Power Technologies is involved. In 2005, it installed a PowerBuoy off the coast of Atlantic City in the US to demonstrate the viability of wave power in New Jersey. The company is also working on a 1.39MW wave farm off northern Spain, and is hoping to install a 5MW unit in UK waters.
Earlier this month, the company also announced a $3m contract with the US Navy to participate in its Deep Water Active Detection Systems programme, which aims to power sensor networks over large parts of the ocean.
Dr George W Taylor, chief executive of the company, welcomed the partnership with the Navy, claiming that Ocean Power Technologies' generators had the potential to help the Navy "reduce its dependence on fuel shipments for power generation facilities, and to meet its strategic goals and other sustainability initiatives".
The Hawaii project is another renewable energy coup for the state, which earlier this year announced plans for a multibillion-dollar initiative to make Hawaii the first low-carbon state in the US. The initiative, which is being backed by the Federal Department of Energy, aims to make Hawaii a model low-carbon economy that can then be replicated across the rest of the US.
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