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Home News-archive Research Successful tests for Oregon State's wave project
| Successful tests for Oregon State's wave project |
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| Written by Administrator | |||
| Tuesday, 14 October 2008 14:23 | |||
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A successful test programme on the latest wave energy device being developed jointly by Oregon State University and Columbia Power Technologies, was completed last month. In a statement released yesterday (13th October) the University said that the positive results from the tests point towards the commercialisation of the project in two to three years. "Our latest test went exceedingly well," said Ted Brekken, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at OSU. "The buoy produced significant power, the hydrodynamic behavior fit our expectations and design, the placement and deployment went smoothly and we got a large amount of data to further evaluate. The Columbia Power Technologies and OSU team did a tremendous job in this collaborative effort." In use, wave buoys might range widely in size, from a couple of feet to large commercial devices that are as much as 50 feet wide and 100 feet long, probably in a cylindrical shape, Brekken said. The above water portion of the buoy would be similar in size and visibility to a small boat. Researchers envision that energy production devices might have a lifespan of about 20 years with regular maintenance, similar to existing wind energy systems. OSU is working in several areas of wave energy development, including new technologies, assessments of the potential biological or environmental impacts, site evaluations, and outreach to coastal communities and interest groups. In September, officials also announced funding support for a new Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, to be based at the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center, with a total of $13.5 million in funding from the US Department of Energy, Oregon legislature, OSU, the Oregon Wave Energy Trust, the University of Washington and other sources. A key part of this initiative will be creation of a wave energy test facility near Newport that would be available to academic researchers as well as private industry.
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