LOCE Wind and Wave Energy Weblog

The web's first ocean and offshore wind energy weblog. Continuously renewed, like the ocean itself.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

GE Takes the Plunge for Ocean Energy


These articles,
750 Kilowatts From Waves
and
GE invests in world's first offshore wave farm project
(Oil Online, 4/18/06) report that General Electric's Technology Lending unit has extended a loan of $2.6 million to Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) for its Portugal wave enery farm (the first in the world as initially blogged here.
Also, GE will take an equity position as part of OPD's $22.5 million (GBP 13 million) equity raise as OPD prepares to deliver on its first commercial contract for a wave power farm.

GE's investment represents a huge step forward for the ocean energy industry. The involvement of such a large institutional player should draw more private capital to the industry and push innovation and commercialization forward. Congratulations and thank you, GE for taking the first step.

Tidal Power for Bay of Fundy?


The Bay of Fundy has long been regarded as a potential source of tidal energy. And now tidal power for Fundy is being revisited, as reported in
N.S. to get peek at draft study of Fundy tidal power
4/20/06).

Ireland Moves Forward on Wave Power


The Irish Examiner reports (4/26/06) that Marine Minister Hails Potential of Wave Power , who recognizes that Ireland "clearly has one of the best potential ocean energy resources in Europe." With a great resource and new advancements, Marine Minister Dempsey announced that:
The time has come for Ireland to really push such areas of innovation and we are delighted with the financial support this strategy will provide for the ongoing attempts at cracking the technological solutions required to successfully harness ocean energy for all our benefits.

Ocean Energy for Africa


Renewables are making their way over to Africa, according to this article, Power play in Mauritius, John Etkind (4/27/06) - and ocean energy is part of the mix.
As this article on Mauritius describes, the country is devoid of fossil fuel and must import 75 percent of energy requirements. So the government is now looking to opportunities within the country to gain energy independence. According to the article, wave energy and OTEC offer the best options presently in the way of ocean resources.

Wave Parks Will Power Towns Very Soon....


This article, Wave parks can power towns, from the Times OnLine (UK)(4/23/06)reports that by 2010, wave energy parks off the coast of Britain should provide enough power for several towns. The article also reports that the Scottish firm AWS will trial its Archimedes wave swing off the coast of Orkney by 2007. Each device can power up to 2000 homes.

Oregon Set to Make Waves


In this article, Waves of the future, the Gazette Times (3/28/06) reports on Oregon's plans for generating renewable energy from the ocean. According to the article:
Gov. Ted Kulongoski would like to see 25 percent of Oregon’s energy come from renewable sources by 2025, and on Monday he took a look at some of the technology that could help do that: Oregon State University’s work to harness the power of the ocean’s waves.
During a Monday visit to OSU, Kulongoski saw demonstrations of the university’s direct-drive prototype buoys.
If you happen to be in Oregon next week, you can learn more about the wave energy program as part of an event entitled Can Wave Power Revitalize a Community?, to be held May 5, 2006 in Reedsport, Oregon. As part of the event, representatives from the Oregon Department of Energy and Oregon State University will make presentations on how to convert ocean waves to energy. For more information on the Oregon event, contact John Hibbs at 503 336 5382 or skipper@bfranklin.edu.

LOCE Offshore Wind & Wave Energy Blog Still Afloat

I realize that in blog-years, a five month period of dormancy verges on extinction. But that's not the case with the LOCE Offshore Wind & Wave Energy Blog: after five months of blog-silence and professional busy-ness, we're back up and running....or floating, as the case may be.

If you're interested in a round-up of activity in the offshore wave and tidal energy industry for 2005, check out my article here at Renewable Energy Access . To read more about lobbying and regulatory activities in the ocean energy industry in the US, you can also visit the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition , where among other things, you can find a copy of OREC'sCCC Comments on MMS' Regulations of Alternative Energy Uses on the Outer Continental Shelf.