Update: Makah Bay AquaBuOY Wave Energy Pilot Project

AquaEnergy Group Ltd, an Ocean Energy division of Finavera Renewables Limited (Finavera Renewables), a private Irish renewable energy company, announced a further significant step in developing the United States' first commercial wave energy power plant.

AquaEnergy submitted an application for a license to construct the Makah Bay Offshore Wave Energy Pilot Project. This application marks a significant milestone for wave energy development in the United States.

AquaEnergy is developing the Makah Bay Offshore Wave project to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of wave energy conversion power plants in utilizing ocean resources to generate clean, renewable energy. The research and demonstration of the AquaBuOY pilot plant would contribute to advances in the worldwide ocean energy industry. AquaBuOYs are modular devices with a nameplate power rating of 250 kW, grouped together three miles offshore.

Alla Weinstein, CEO AquaEnergy and the first President of the European Ocean Energy Association, said, "Our application to FERC, being the first in the nation, indicates that we are ready to move from research to commercialization. This represents a major step in creation of a new industry - the Ocean Energy industry."

The Makah Tribal Council Chairman, Ben Johnson Jr, concluded, "The Makah Tribe has interest in using energy derived from renewable resources. The Makah Nation chose to partner in this project due to the environmental integrity and low impact of AquaEnergy's offshore buoy technology over competing technologies."

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The AquaEnergy offshore plant consists of patented wave energy converters, AquaBuOYs, based on heaving buoy point absorber and hose-pump technologies. Clusters of these small, modular devices are moored several miles offshore where the wave resource is greater. The resulting offshore power plants are scalable from hundreds of kilowatts to hundreds of megawatts. They are suitable for distributed generation to coastal communities, or central generation for large population centers.

The Makah Bay pilot power plant will consist of four (4) low-profile moored buoys, AquaBuOY, placed 3.2 nautical miles offshore in water depths of 150-250 feet, to transform wave energy into usable electrical energy. The Makah Bay pilot power plant is projected to deliver 1500MWh annually and projected to offset 645 Mt CO2 annually using 0.43 Kg CO2/KWh emissions factor.

LICENSING PROCESS

The Makah Bay Project represents the first of its kind pilot wave energy project in the nation to involve the FERC licensing process.

AquaEnergy is following the FERC Alternative Licensing Process and is filing a Preliminary Draft Environmental Assessment (PDEA) with the application for an original FERC license. The application will be placed in the Federal Register by FERC and available for public comment for 90 days. Federal, state and tribal governments will review the license application for 6 months to one year before construction. This filing makes the Makah Bay Pilot Project the most advanced wave energy project under FERC review in the United States.

The Alternative Licensing Process (ALP) combines into a single process the pre-filing consultation and environmental review processes under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Typically, FERC's license application process for a power plant consists of a multi-year process that AquaEnergy has now completed. It includes extensive environmental and technical studies, public meetings, stakeholder meetings, and other required actions. Since the project inception in 2001, AquaEnergy has conducted meetings with environmental groups, fishermen's associations, and commercial and recreational users of Makah Bay. AquaEnergy's model approach involving the public was a result of early action in ocean energy project development.

Completion of the PDEA and the license application was made possible with the financial support of several groups, including the Snohomish PUD Puget Sound Energy, Washington State utilities, Evans-Hamilton, and Fugro Pelagos. The FERC original license process examined and assessed potential impact of the demonstration project on the oceanographic, geophysical, and biological conditions of the Makah Bay through the PDEA. The PDEA concluded that the issuance of an original license for the Makah Bay Project as proposed would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment, and there would be no cumulative effects from the proposed project. The PDEA can be downloaded from AquaEnergy web site: www.aquaenergygroup.com

The FERC license application process is an extensive technical process compared to FERC's preliminary permit. The preliminary permit is issued for up to three years but does not authorize construction. According to FERC, it is not necessary to obtain a preliminary permit in order to apply for and receive a FERC license to construct and operate a power plant.

A consortium formed for the project includes the Makah Indian Nation, Clallam County Public Utility District ('PUD'), Washington State University, Bonneville Power Administration through the Northwest Energy Innovation Center, Clallam County Economic Development Council, and AquaEnergy.

Makah Bay Offshore Wave Energy Pilot Project Files for Power Plant License, Finavera Renew ables press release, 11/3/06

Comments

[amazingdrx]

1,500 mwh per year will power 150 to 300 homes. At 5000 to 10,000 kwh per year per home, depending on energy conservation in the homes.

This looks like a great design to power island and coastal communities.

For large cities and utility scale power production for the grid, combined wind and wave power floating platforms would be better.

But this proves the feasibility. A 1500 foot diameter wave power floating platform could produce 50 mw. And if the projected kwh production of this wave project holds up to real world tests, these large floating wave platforms could power 50,000 to 100,000 homes. Double that for platforms that also incorporate 1000 foot scale wind machines.

In which case, coastal urban areas like Seattle or NYC could power themselves with floating offshore wind/wave platforms cost effectively with out of sight, out of NIMBY-mind, clean electric power.

And deslinization pumps running on these platforms could provide fresh water that is in such short supply in many urban locales.

[donb]

You need to check out the web site at the top of the article. A large platform would not work, as it would smooth out the variations in wave heights over its area. The technology depends on the movement of a relatively small buoy floating on the surface against a disk in the nearly stationary water some distance below the surface.

To get large amounts of power, an array of these devices is used.

[Tim]

Did I read the white paper correctly?

http://aquaenergygroup.com/projects/articles/PDEA-061020_sm.pdf

The plant generates 1,500 mwh per year, which they value at $60,000. It costs $50,000/year to operate and costs $5,000,0000. (Page 132 in the PDF.) They are almost a factor of 10 from being feasible. Am I missing something?

[Watthead]

Nope, you're not missing anything, Tim. AquaEnergy must be planning on taking a large loss on this pilot project, but that is typical of many pilot energy generation projects. AquaEnergy probably plans on simply eating the loss on this project in the hopes that it will pave the way for more larger scale projects in the future. They have a long-term (20 year) power purchase agreement from Clallam County PUD to purchase the output of the pilot project for only 4 cents per kilowatt hour, or the same as power from coal or cheap hydro.

Wave energy pilot projects produce power in the range of 20-30 cents/kWh (levelized costs). Eventually, the industry hopes/expects that prices will drop along a similar price curve as experienced by the wind industry to roughly 5-6 cents/kWh, or competitive with onshore wind power (and natural gas).

[shamil ayntrazi, PE]

Greetings,
Follows a summary of enerating electric power from sea waves, as detailed at website www.renewableenergypumps.com
It is submitted for info and possible cooperation.

Best regards

Shamil
PROPOSAL
Two systems are herein proposed. They excel all others.
1. Wave Air Pump - WAP: Compresses air and feed it into the air inlet of a turbine, add fuel as needed to maintain turbine output irrespective of wave heights.
2. Wave Water Pump - WWP: Lifts a small quantity of water to a high head and feed it to a hydro-turbine to produce power, or compressed air to feed another turbine and act as a WAP.
A set of pumps up to ten may be installed in line with the incoming waves and a mile wide to extract most of its energy.
The proposed systems can generate electric power at a cost less than 2 Cents per kilowatt-hour.

[jfinlayson]

Wave power prototype sinks in the sea.

Oops.