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Navy-funded wave farm under way in Hawaii

By Megan Treacy

Posted Thu Nov 13, 2008 5:02pm PST

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Ocean Power Technologies and the Navy have joined together to create a small wave farm off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii. The company has installed one of its PowerBuoy units one mile off the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corp Base, with plans to install others in the near future to generate 1MW.

The PowerBuoy will be connected to the Oahu grid and Kaneohe Bay will serve as a test site for the Navy, which is hoping to install these units at bases around the world. This project is part of the Navy's larger goal of reducing their dependence on fuel shipments for power.

Ocean Power Technologies has previously installed PowerBuoy units off the coast of Atlantic City, NJ and Santoña, Spain. The units are only 12 feet in diameter and 55 feet long and can be arranged in arrays that generate hundreds of megawatts. The onboard sensors automatically change settings in response to sea conditions. If the buoy encounter very large waves, it automatically powers down until conditions have settled.

The military is often one of the first users of cutting edge technology, so I'm glad to see that they are also eager to utilize something as promising as wave power.

via Ocean Power Technologies

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Posted by noel_parisian Fri Nov 14, 2008 6:06am PST
This is an encouraging action indeed, not least because the initiative was undertaken by the Navy of the world's 2nd biggest carbon emitter. The world must learn that it has to wean itself off fossil fuels, not only due to rising prices and plummeting future output, but because of the severe consequences it places on our environment. The fact that this action was funded by the Navy, an organization that is seldom viewed as 'green' must inspire us all to believe that this earth is our shared responsibility. I salute the Navy and wish all environment conscious people good luck in their fight for our environment.
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