Project to use ocean waves to create power gets delayed
REEDSPORT, Ore. (AP) — The company planning a wave energy installation off Reedsport won't have its first buoy in the water this year as planned.
Ocean Power Technologies says it managed to put one of three anchors in place, but the remaining two anchors will spend the winter in Reedsport while the power generation buoy is stored in Portland.
Marketing director Greg Lennon told The World the company encountered a number of challenges, mainly the weather.
The Pennington, N.J., company eventually plans to have 10 buoys about 3 miles off Reedsport. They would use the motion of waves to generate enough electricity for about 1,000 homes.
Information from: The World
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Delayed? Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
 @Mikey Who would have thought that weather had anything to do with channeling waves? ;-)
Too many moving parts, maintinence costs will be outrageous when they can get to them to work on them. I also predict that right after they are all installed some N. Korean Dragger will accidentalyy hook them and they will be working off the Coast of N. Korea in 3 months.
Power 1000 homes? That's all? And at what outrageous cost to install and maintain these buoys? And at what impact to the ocean and ocean floor? This "free" energy has to be taking energy from the normal wave action of the ocean. How is this going to impact the natural motions?
 @Nobody Why don't we ban ships because they might impact the natural motion of the ocean.  I really hope your comment was meant to be sarcastic.
Getting power from the waves is a good idea. It has a lot more potential than solar which is very expensive and should be cheaper than wind.
 @RalphCramden They should install solar cells on those propeller blades to get the best of both. Then mount the propeller turbines on buoys at sea. And if that doesn't make you seasick, nothing will!
 @RalphCramden Maybe. But, Ralph, think about how corrosive seawater is and what extraordinary steps are going to have to be taken to stop or repair the corrosion. Think about installation. You can't just drive a ready-mix truck to the site and pour a foundation. Installing these things out in the ocean is going to be horrendously expensive. I always wonder, in projects like this, do we really get back more energy than what was required to build the system?
 @Nobody  @RalphCramden They're built on land.  The concrete "anchor"  and buoy are loaded onto a ship, hauled out to see then dropped into place.  It's a very common and simple process.  They use coatings and paints that resist corrosion and they require very little maintenance once installed.
 @pdxtvguy   @NobodyÂ
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I looked at their web site. It looks like there are two major parts with a different buoyancy level for each part. This allows one part to move up and down more than the heavier part. The heavier part has much more mass and is less likely to move up and down with the waves.
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Pretty ingenious.
 @RalphCramden  @pdxtvguy  @Nobody I've seen two different designs.  The latest one is a side to side motion.  The one that already is in use around the world and soon in Oregon uses an up and down.
 @Nobody  @RalphCramden Pretty much will require similar maintenance as the Coast Guard provides for channel buoys.
It has to be close to shore where the wave action is greatest to work.
 @Saltire  @Nobody Â
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I'm thinking that it will be closer to shore and a lot more dangerous to work on. I haven't seen the plans so I could be way off base.
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All very good points.
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"I always wonder, in projects like this, do we really get back more energy than what was required to build the system?"
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I always wonder that also knowing that there is no such thing as a perpetual machine.
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In this case I think that there will be more energy created that it takes to make it. The key is that we are harnessing the motion of water which is driven by gravity which adds energy to the equation. Solar panels have been proven to require more energy to make than the will produce in their lifetime.
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It is possible to prevent corrosion to these generators by creating an electrical field around the device. After all it is creating energy so adding that one would be relatively easy to do. Ships in mothball do this and it is quite successful.
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They could also coat the metal with heavy duty plastic that could prevent corrosion or use galvanized metal.
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But the bottom line is that nature always wins.
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At my vacation home in easter Oregon the sun shines over 300 days a year. Just the UV radiation destroys everything. We go through drapes at least every 5 years, have to pull in all lawn furniture or it will be trashed in less than 2 years, anything plastic will be ruined in less than a year. And that is just sunlight.
The concept of using the Oceans constant motion to produce energy is good but I doubt this is the best way to go about it.
 @swede760 What's your suggestion then?
This is where some of the 90 billion obummer gave to support green energy went. Sure glad we're gonna create power for 1000 homes! What did that cost? 100 mill? Waste!
 @Donttreadonme Yeah, forget pioneering new energy solutions. Let's rely permanently on finite resources. Please note, I am being completely sarcastic. The search for new energy solutions is a human issue, not a party issue.
@Donttreadonme This project has been around much longer than Obama
 @swede760 Shhh...you'll ruin his decade!
This project sounds more like a scam for fed. funds.