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14 June 2004 - The US Electricity Innovation Institute (E2I) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have identified several viable candidate sites in Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Maine for possible demonstration plants to convert offshore wave energy from the ocean into electricity.
E2I and EPRI are collaborating with energy agencies and utilities from these four states and the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to produce a conceptual system design for a pilot demonstration power plant and future commercial-size facility at one site in each state. This will include estimates of the construction costs and power generating potential for each plant using technology-ready devices.
The study will help determine whether wave energy is economically practicable off the shores of the United States in the 2010 time period and therefore, make a case either for or against additional demonstration funding to develop this wave energy conversion technology.
"Offshore wave energy is an exciting, renewable, non-polluting electricity resource that is too important to overlook," said E2I President and CEO T.J. Glauthier. "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 United States."
The candidate sites meet the necessary required attributes including those of wave behaviour, ocean depth, coastal utility grid interconnection, regional manufacturing infrastructure, and existing local harbour facilities for deployment, retrieval and servicing of the elongated 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.
This rough ocean water represents a concentrated form of wind energy. The conversion devices capture the kinetic energy produced by the bobbing and/or pitching motion of the ocean via floating platforms.
The amount is significant: the average wave energy off the Northwest Coast of the United States is approximately 25 kW/meter of wave crest. Therefore, assuming 50
percent efficiency, a 50-meter-wide device (about the size of half a football field) can capture and convert 25 kW of wave energy, enough to power about 23 homes.
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