Cable Expo 2024 Update: Ireland Deploys the World's First Grid-Scale Wave Energy Device in Hawaii
Cable Expo 2024 has learned that on the 25th, authorities announced that Ireland has successfully deployed its 826-ton wave energy converter buoy OE-35 at the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) located on the windward coast of Oahu, Hawaii. After onsite commissioning and testing, the device is expected to be connected to the Hawaiian electrical grid via an undersea cable in the coming weeks.
The utility-scale wave energy device measures 125 x 59 feet with a draft exceeding 30 feet, and it has a potential rated capacity of 1.25 megawatts in power generation.
Cable Expo 2024 has learned that the $12 million project, located north of Mokapu Peninsula in Kaneohe Bay at the WETS site, was towed from Honolulu to the target location on Friday, July 19. The project is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). According to the agreement, the governments of the U.S. and Ireland are committed to cooperating on ocean hydrokinetic technology.
Professor Tony Lewis, Chief Technology Officer at Ocean Energy, expressed, “After fifteen years of design, trials, tests, and construction, we are thrilled to finally take this significant step towards commercializing our world-class OE-35 device. For both the United States and Ireland, this internationally significant project comes at an ideal time as the world needs new innovative technologies to accelerate the pace of decarbonization.”
The opportunity with ocean energy lies in its capacity to substantially meet global energy demands, with just electricity sales potentially exceeding $50 billion annually. Globally, wave energy could satisfy 10% of the world’s electricity needs.
Thus, while the market for marine renewable energy is currently relatively small, it is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade.
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