Sites identified for wave energy conversion
PALO ALTO, California, US, 2004-06-30 (Refocus Weekly)
Several sites in four U.S. states have been identified for possible demonstration of offshore wave energy.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Electricity Innovation
Institute (E2I) are collaborating with energy agencies and utilities in Oregon,
Washington, Hawaii and Maine, as well as the Department of Energy’s National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, to produce a conceptual system design for a
demonstration and a commercial facility at one site in each state. The study
would estimate construction costs and generating potential for each facility
using technology-ready devices, and would determine whether wave energy is
economically practicable off the shores of the U.S. by 2010.
“Offshore wave energy is an exciting, renewable, non-polluting electricity
resource that is too important to overlook,” T.J. Glauthier of E2I. “E2I and
EPRI’s exploration of wave power demonstration projects will help validate
current technology that could possibly serve as an alternative to fossil fuels
and create thousands of new jobs here in the U.S.”
Rough ocean water is a concentrated form of wind energy, and conversion devices
capture the kinetic energy from the bobbing or pitching motion. The average wave
energy off the northwest coast is 25 kW per metre of wave crest and a unit with
50% efficiency could generate 625 kW of electricity from a device that is 50 m
wide.
“If any state in the U.S. should be interested in using its natural wave
energy resource, that state is Hawaii” because its high dependence on imported
oil and coal results in the highest electricity cost in the country, while the
available annual wave energy resource off the northern shores “far exceeds the
electricity demand” of most islands except Oahu, says the summary report for
Hawaii.
All candidate sites meet the required attributes of wave behaviour, ocean depth,
coastal utility grid interconnection, regional manufacturing infrastructure, and
existing local harbor facilities for deployment and retrieval of floating
structures. The report also identifies wave energy conversion prototypes that
are technology-ready for testing and capable of withstanding rough water
conditions, which has hindered deployment and survivability in the past.
The final assessment of a specific site per state will be available at in
September.
Click
here for more info...
Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/ for your international energy focus!!
|