News

May 20, 2009

Ocean Power Technologies To Deploy A 150KW Wave Power Device By Year-End 2009

Rue Swabey

Finally there is some positive news for the wave power sector. The Obama administration has moved to simplify the complex permitting requirements for wave power farms and the US Department of Energy has earmarked US$40 million for its ocean power R&D budget up from zero a few years ago.

A company at the forefront of ocean power is US-based, Aim-listed Ocean Power Technologies. In the second half of last year the company deployed four PowerBuoys. Ocean Power has developed a functional 40KW buoy generator, known as a PowerBuoy or PB40, which has completed two years of testing. The company is building a 150KW buoy which it plans to deploy towards the end of this year. The next step would be a 500KW buoy which should be able to compete on an even keen with other sources of energy...