Oregon Wave Energy Trust

Company will test wave buoys near Cape Arago

View Original Source at The World

May 2nd, 2012

By Jessie Higgins, The World

A New Mexico wave energy company hopes to place a string of test wave energy buoys three miles west of Cape Arago this summer, just outside Oregon’s Territorial Sea.

‘It’s in the planning process,” said Phil Kithil, the founder and chief executive officer of Atmocean, a company that develops wave energy technology.

If Kithil receives the necessary permits, he plans to launch a string of three test buoys in mid-July. This test will last only three weeks, Kithil said. Then the buoys will be removed.

This will be the company’s first real-world test of Atmocean’s wave energy technology. Kithil plans to use the three-week test to measure hydraulic output, calculate electrical potential and refine mooring, deployment and retrieval techniques.

He will use pumps suspended between the buoys to measure the hydraulic output.

‘We would get real world ocean waves and how much energy we would capture and transmit from those,” Kithil said. ‘That is a key factor because wave tanks don’t properly imitate what the ocean actually does. Ocean waves vary moment to moment.”

The test buoys would occupy an area of the ocean about the size of a football field, Kithil said.

Kithil does not intend to establish a permanent wave energy park, with multiple buoys, off the Oregon Coast.

Instead, he hopes his technology will eventually be used to power remote island communities in Hawaii or the Caribbean, which currently rely on diesel to produce energy.

‘They’re importing diesel and burning diesel,” both of which generate substantial pollution, Kithil said. This also means the cost of power on an island is much higher than on the mainland, which is generally connected to a power grid with multiple power sources, he said.

From a business standpoint, it’s more practical to build a wave energy park near an energy-starved island than try to compete with Oregon’s hydroelectric power generated on the Columbia River, Kithil added.

For this summer’s test project, Kithil said he intends to hire a local company to build the buoy apparatuses.

Atmocean’s technology to harness the wave energy was invented to be a wave-driven ocean pump. It was originally designed to push cold water from the ocean floor to the surface during a hurricane in the hopes of reducing the hurricane’s intensity, according to the Atmocean website.

After Kithil transformed his invention to harness wave energy, he submitted it to General Electric’s Ecomagination Challenge in July 2010. It was ‘judged in the top 100 of over 4,000 entries,” according to the website. However, Atmocean did not receive funding for the technology.

Assuming there are no major glitches with July test, Kithil hopes to have his technology ready for market by 2013.

Reaching Out

Did You Know?

Oregon is a leader in wave energy.

Oregon focuses on a collaborative model for getting wave energy projects in the water.

That Oregon’s Coastline is among a few places in the world that has the key elements to tap into wave energy?

That Oregon can enjoy an abundance of energy generated by ocean waves?

That our state contains internationally- recognized experts who are leading efforts to responsibly develop wave energy?

That Oregon has capacity to build, maintain and deliver sustainable wave energy power to the grid?

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Why support Oregon Wave Energy Trust?

Wave energy is one key part of the comprehensive alternative energy solution for Oregon. And thanks to a combination of unique characteristics is the only source of energy where Oregon enjoys such a clear competitive advantage. As a result, Oregon’s wave energy industry provides myriad opportunities to deliver significant economic benefits to the state.

Oregon Wave Energy Trust (OWET) works closely with our state- wide stakeholders: fishing and environmental groups, coastal communities and industry, government agencies and other partners in responsibly developing this new industry while establishing Oregon as the North American leader in wave energy. The work that we do is the real benefit we offer our members.

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Oregon Wave Energy Trust was funded in part with Oregon State Lottery Funds administered by the Oregon Business Development Department. It is one of six Oregon Innovation Council initiatives supporting innovation and long term economic growth.