Australian renewable energy company, Energetech, has changed its name to Oceanlinx. AltCon had previously posted on Energetech’s wave powerplant at Port Kembla and their proposed project off Point Judith Rhode Island.
The company has a new website, www.oceanlinx.com, and is moving ahead on several wave power projects worldwide. Including:
- South Africa – contracted for 10 plants to be installed over the next 3 years
- Late stage negotiations with an Australian power company for 10 units to be located in Portland
- Australia – ongoing negotiations for installations in King Island
- Hawaii – a proposed project in Maui
- Rhode Island – the ongoing project has a commitment from the state for a 10MW plant
- England – a proposed 5MW project
- Mexico – financing a feasibility study for two units
An exciting component of the Oceanlinx wave energy technology is its ability to utilize its energy to create clean, fresh water from ocean brine, in addition to creating electricity for the power grid.
Waves provide a constant source of energy, unlike solar, or wind energy, whose production capacity can be adversely affected by weather conditions.
Additional features:
- Oceanlinx hardware is simple and robust with only one moving part, the turbine
- Units are easily moved and relocated
- The structure is above water and less prone to break-down than undersea installations
- Oxford Oceanics has deemed Oceanlinx technology to be most efficient at converting wave energy to electricity
- The Electric Power Research Institute deems Oceanlinx the lowest cost per unit producer of its wave power peer group
- Oceanlinx technology can produce potable water, electricity and salable by- products like brine and hydrogen from its desalination process
RSS
I live in Hawaii where 90% of our electricity is generated by burning of imported oil. The cost of electricity on the Big Island is $0.15-$0.20 per Kwh. We have strong wave action on the north side of this island as on the north side of the other islands as well and would benefit from wave generation equipment installation on that side.
Oahu, where most people live, has very strong wave action on the north shore which attracts surfers to surfing events. There are also places on the north shore with good shore wave action that do not have surfers (near Shark’s cove, for example). These would be good locations for wave conversion shore based equipment.
Maui is the first of the islands to install a sizeable wind farm (30Megawatts) and receives about 5% of its energy from this farm. I am sure that if a wave generation equipment were installed on Maui to feed electricity into the utility system grid, the island would greatly benefit in the long run.
On the Big Island, 14 GE 2.5 Megawatt wind generators are being installed at South Point for a wind farm. Our island too would benefit from wave power shore installation.
adrianakau@aol.com
True, Hawaii is too dependent on our fossil-fueled power supply, but putting something that looks like it could be a small oil platform on the beaches of Hawaii, where a large chunk of our income comes from our tourism, is not a pretty idea. I don’t think the residents near sharks cove would ever let something that looks like this be settled in the bay as an eyesore to tourists that come to enjoy the beach in all it’s natural beauty.
You can do 2 things: put them on outer-breaks, out of sight, or make them blend in.
i’d rather see something like this than a nuclear power plant — which would HAVE to be coastal in Australia as there isn’t any water for cooling inland.
A large structure does’t have to occur to mess up views. You could use the snake type that lay low in the water. The use them at Islay in the U.K. I have a video ofthem at my site.