Wave Farm - United States

United States

Wave power in the United States is under development in several locations off the east & west coasts as well as Hawaii. It has moved beyond the research phase and major installations are planned to come on-line within the next few years. Its use to-date has been for situations where other forms of energy production are not economically viable and as such, the power output is currently modest.

According to the president of trade association Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, “The total potential off the coast of the United States is 252 million megawatt hours a year.” Despite the absence of current implementation of major projects, there has been significant investment on the part of public utility companies and federal funds for the implementation and economic viability of two new wave power energy centers as of September 30, 2008.

On December 18, 2007 the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, the largest national utility company, announced a commercial agreement to purchase power generated by wave energy. This decision was made in part to be competitive in the public electrical energy market in the state of California under stringent renewable energy restrictions. Currently, California state law requires that publicly owned utilities are required to generate 20% of their electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and wave power by 2010. After the General Election on November 4, 2008 this law may be subject to change to an even more stringent law, which states that publicly owned utilities would be required to increase their proportion of electricity from renewable resources to 20% by 2010, 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025.

Federally, under the Marine Renewable Energy Research and Development Act of 2007 the United States has committed $200 million in federal funds toward wave energy technology to be allocated from 2008 through 2012. The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is currently responsible for the allocation of $50 million per fiscal year for research, development, demonstration and commercial application of ocean energy. In 2008, the first year of federal allocation toward wave energy, there are a total of fourteen recipients. The most notable recipients of this year include Oregon State University and the University of Hawaii. Oregon State University in partnership with the University of Washington, will implement the development of the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center for wave and tidal energy. The second recipient, University of Hawaii will develop and implement the National Renewable Marine Energy Center in Hawaii.

The Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company of Seattle has applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permits to harness energy from waves off the coastline of California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. The $28 billion project would be the largest renewable energy project in the nation.

In 2012, Ocean Power Technologies (O.P.T.), based in Pennington, New Jersey is involved in the following wave projects in the US:

• LEAP Autonomous PowerBuoy, New Jersey - O.P.T. has successfully operated an autonomous PowerBuoy® off New Jersey, designed and manufactured by O.P.T. under the US Navy’s Littoral Expeditionary Autonomous PowerBuoy (LEAP) program for coastal security and maritime surveillance.
• Coos Bay, Oregon - O.P.T. is proposing to develop a utility-scale, commercial wave park in North America at Coos Bay, Oregon. The planned size of this park is up to 100 megawatts, and it will be the largest wave energy project in the world when it is completed
• Reedsport, Oregon - O.P.T. is developing a commercial wave park on the west coast of the United States located 2.5 miles offshore near Reedsport, Oregon. The first phase of this project is for ten PB150 PowerBuoys, or 1.5 megawatts. The Reedsport wave farm is now scheduled for installation spring 2013.
• Oahu, Hawaii - From 2009 to 2011, O.P.T. ocean-tested its PowerBuoy at the US Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) at Kaneohe Bay. The Oahu PowerBuoy was launched under the Company's program with the US Navy for ocean testing and demonstration of PowerBuoys, including connection to the Oahu grid.
• Atlantic City, New Jersey - The prototype project, wherein the principles demonstrated with the PB40 prototype PowerBuoy deployed and tested off the coast of Atlantic City were integrated into the designs of the buoys for Hawaii, Spain, and PB150 PowerBuoys.