Ocean Power Heads to Japan

By Ucilia Wang

Ocean Power Technologies (OPTT) said it has lined up a deal with three Japanese energy and shipbuilding companies to produce electricity from the sea.

The project would be the first for Ocean Power, which is teaming up with Idemitsu Kosan, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Japan Wind Development.

Harnessing the power from the waves' movement to produce electricity promises to provide a steady and vast source of energy. But significant technical hurdles, such as ensuring that equipment won't deteriorate quickly in salty water and poor weather, have made the path to commercial deployment more a dream than reality for the industry.

One of the higher profiled ocean power developers, Pelamis Wave Power in Scotland, had to pull its equipment out of the coast of Portugal in November 2008 after trying them out for less than a year. The company also recently lost its CEO.

Canadian waver power developer, Finavera Renewables, lost its bid to sell electricity to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in October 2008 after California regulators deemed the project too expensive and the technology unproven. The 2-megawatt project would have been the first ocean power plant off the California coast.

It didn't help that Finavera saw its prototype equipment sink before completing the trial run off the Oregon coast in 2007.

Ocean Power certainly would expect a better outcome with its projects. The company and its corporate backers in Japan plan to first figure out a good location for a demo project and line up some government support, the company said.

If all goes well, Ocean Power would deploy up to three of its PowerBuoys for the trial run. The ultimate goal is to build stations that are 10 megawatts or larger and sell the electricity to utilities.

Ocean Power would generate revenue by selling the equipment for the demo plant to the three Japanese companies. For commercial projects, Ocean Power would then license its technology for the Japanese consortium to manufacture and install, though it also would still provide some of the components.

Ocean Power said it also is developing a 1.39-megawatt station off the coast of Spain, and a larger project – up to 5 megawatts – in the United Kingdom.

Comments

[jerrydd:]

There is little power available except for a very few sites to be worthwhile. Wave power just doesn't add up to profits.

Interestingly tidal/river power, 2 mph or faster, is very energy dense and there is enough US resource to cut coal power out completely and is baseline power too.

Sadly no on has designed a viable utility size one yet. I did a bunch of small tidal gens in the 80's and they just are not that hard to do. But sadly engineers apparently don't have a clue about surviving the marine environment and extracting the power from it. So much power, money going to waste.

If nothing else put in paddlewheel units. There is so much power available, even they will work profitably.

Oct 09 08:33 AM

[tc1:]

Ucilia, thank you for your article update on the "good, bad and ugly" about ocean power promises and fizzles (or kerplunks), and thank you Jerry for your comment pointing us in what seems to be a much better direction.

Oct 09 09:23 AM

[john s. gordon:]

wave power was 'promising' in 1974 and remains 'promising' today.
there are several locations around the world (rance estuary in france) where geographic factors make tidal power of interest. in the 1930's, FDR promoted the passamaquoddy project in maine but it didn't happen.
we have lost a few promising low-head hydro sites in the last few years - the rappahannock dam near frederickburg was demolished because environmentalists wanted a free-running river for fish.
lots of promising low-head hydro sites exist in new england, 100 yrs ago they ran mills, today they sit idle.
> jack

Oct 11 09:03 AM

[E.M.Smith:]

Wave power has plenty of density. Take a look at the waves constantly coming in on the Pacific coast. (The whole world is not the Gulf of Mexico...) It is no accident that they chose to install the beta test on the Pacific coast. There is enough energy in a couple of hundred miles of water to power the entire state of California (1/10 th of the nation...) and it has about 1000+ miles of coastline. The buoys are also environment friendly, so the "fish" issues won't stand in the way (like it presently is doing for food farming.) All in all a decent system. The one thing I'd like to know, though, is the cost per kW-hr. Then again, on the "loony left coast" they are running about 25 cents / kwh anyway...

No, it won't sell to Texas. But very much yes, this will sell into a large number of places. Waves are present substantially all the time in many places and that will make this a very attractive option compared with wind and solar.

Oct 14 02:15 PM

[PhreddyPhert:]

Helps to have serious backing from Idemitsu Kosan, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Japan Wind Development and Lockheed Martin Corp. standing behind you with open wallets...
Lockheed Martin Corp and Ocean Power Technologies Inc. said Tuesday they have agreed to develop utility-scale power-generation systems based on Ocean Power Technologies’ system for generating electricity from waves.

The agreement calls for Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) to use its expertise in systems integration, lean manufacturing and test and optimization analysis to take Ocean Power Technologies’ PowerBuoy wave-power generation technology to utility scale.

Lockheed Martin's "know-how will enhance key aspects of our current product offering, and aid the successful rollout of our core PowerBuoy technology on the West Coast, ” said Mark Draper, CEO of Ocean Power Technologies in the press release announcing the agreement.

Lockheed Martin’s Moorestown, N.J., unit will lead the company’s work on the systems. That unit also is working on utility-scale solar-power generation systems.

Oct 18 12:38 PM