San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will be the first U.S. utility to buy electricity generated by wave power. PG&E’s new contract will use electricity in its new contract would come from a wave project planned by Canada’s Finavera Renewables Inc. for the waters off the coast of Northern California’s Humboldt County, according to the LA Times.
The PG&E Corp. subsidiary said power from the 15-year deal would be delivered beginning in 2010 and would provide a relatively meager boost to the grid — just 2 megawatts, or enough to power about 1,500 homes. But the company stated the power deal was a significant milestone for a promising technology that could be a major source of renewable energy for the say. - LA Times
The move by PG&E to embrace this emerging technology shows that the market is there for innovative renewables. In California, new laws require utilities to obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010. Wave power has the potential to capture more energy in less space than wind and solar power systems.
Finavera’s “wave park” would include eight bobbing buoys set up roughly 2 1/2 miles off shore from Eureka, Calif. The up-and-down motion of the Pacific Ocean would power a pump that creates electricity, which would be delivered to a PG&E substation via an underwater transmission cable. - LA Times
There are still concerns about the impact of this technology on the region’s fishing industry, wildlife and outdoor recreation but Finavera has been conducting tests off the coast of Oregon and is involved with wave energy projects in Portugal, Canada, the United Says and South Africa.
You can check the launch of Finavera’s Aquabouy 2.0 Wave Power Generator over at Inhabitat.
See how it works (Finavera Renewables video)…
Via LA Times
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