Buoy harnesses ocean waves to create energy

By Brian Blank on Mar 14, 2011

Ocean Power Technology (OPT) recently finished construction of the company’s largest device to harness the power of ocean waves to deliver up to 150 kW of energy just from the natural movement of the seas. The PB150 PowerBuoy was build in Scotland and is slated to be deployed forr open-water trials about 33 nautical miles offshore of Scotland’s northeast coast.

OPT already has many small PowerBuoys deployed including a 40 kW buoy off the shore of Oahu, Hawaii but this is the largest to date, measuring in at 135 ft. long and 36 ft. in diameter near where the buoy breaks the ocean’s surface. Another PB150 is being assembled for testing in Oregon.

The PowerBuoy is an offshore wave energy converter with much of the buoy submerged below the surface. There is a piston-like structure inside that bobs with the rise and fall of the waves. The movement drives a generator, producing electricity and sent ashore through an underwater cable. The PowerBuoys can be configured into a powerplant, with identical buoys connected together on one power cable to produce the desired amount of electricity.

The buoys are anchored to the seafloor with a proprietary anchoring system the company says avoids harming or damaging the sea bed or sea life. OPT installs the buoys in around 100 to 150 feet of water.

[via Earth Techling]

Anonymous

there are also ones that use tidal currents to generate power, which seems to me would be more reliable and efficient, as they can be located in coastal channels directly adjacent to the stations & the electrical grid itself.
Anonymous

This is very interesting, but I would like to know the long term Cost-Benefit analysis on something like this. Once you factor in cost of manufacture (in dollars and energy and environmental impact), installation (in dollars and energy and environmental impact), and maintenance (in a highly corrosive environment), the “free” energy may not be so free.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3PQR2S2EAZUDJKVYUCKLCWJ37Q Micheal

+1

I love different ways to harness energy, but I have to wonder how much the energy costs in the long run when you consider potential maintenance of these things underwater.
Anonymous

And another thing that doesn’t seem so smart…powering your nation’s defense infrastructure with them http://www.earthtechling.com/2010/10/wave-energy-powers-maritime-security/ – undefended power generators that can be disabled with a minimum of effort and the enemy can disrupt the military’s power grid…huh?!
Anonymous

And another thing that doesn’t seem so smart…powering your nation’s defense infrastructure with them http://www.earthtechling.com/2010/10/wave-energy-powers-maritime-security/ – undefended power generators that can be disabled with a minimum of effort and the enemy can disrupt the military’s power grid…huh?!
http://www.reefbuilders.com Brian Blank

I am sure there is redundancy in there. No way a US Military operation is going to rely on one source — always have a backup.
Anonymous

Ya, but you don’t want your back up so easy to take out either. If this was a third tier, that would make sense. But then, does it make financial sense. I like the idea of ocean power, just not for military and I would hope that there would be a more elegant design than this one…it seems like a lot of hardware and work for a measly 150kw. Float one good platform out there with an average output wind turbine and you are doing 8x that much power and a lot less effort. Do you realize how big this thing is?
Jon Hahn

There is a reason why you dont see more wave buoy generators; they cant match the return on investment that wind generators can. The space that these take up would be better used for a floating 3.5MW Vestas generator.

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