Scottish firm interested in harnessing
Oregon wave energy
Feb 18, 2007 The Associated Press
A Scottish firm is the second company to express
interest in harnessing wave energy along the Douglas
County coastline.
David Langston, business development manager for
Wavegen, told county Commissioners Marilyn Kittelman
and Joe Laurance that his company is interested in
exploring development of a shore-based energy converter
near the south jetty at Winchester Bay.
Wavegen is owned by Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation
a partnership between two of Germanys industrial giants.
It has produced electricity by harnessing wave energy
since 2000.
It operates a plant and test facility on the island
of Islay, off Scotland's west coast. A column of water
inside a chamber moves up and down from the action
of the waves, which, in turn, produces electricity.
Voith Siemens produces 31 percent of the worlds water-based
electricity, Langston said.
The company produces 14 gigawatts at a plant in Brazil
and another 18 gigawatts at the massive Three Gorges
Dam in China.
He said his company is interested in developing developing
new technologies but that those are expensive and
take time to become viable.
Existing technologies are competitive, and new ones
would have trouble at first competing with organizations
and companies doing major projects, Langston said.
A New Jersey company, Ocean Power Technologies, wants
to locate a series of electricity-producing buoys
in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Winchester Bay.
The buoys, which would be tethered about three miles
off shore, would produce electricity through the pounding
action of waves.
Langston said his company would need no undersea
cables or moorings and would have no visual impact.
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