Future

Energy Sources

Wind propels waves, which can be harnessed to create electricity.

Wave Energy on Maui

In February 2008, Oceanlinx Ltd., an Australia-based international high-tech company, announced plans to provide electricity to Maui Electric Company from Hawaii’s first wave energy project.

The plan is to provide up to 2.7 megawatts from two or three floating platforms located one-half to three-quarters of a mile due north of Pauwela Point on the northeast coast of Maui.

Oceanlinx offers a unique, commercially efficient wave-to-electricity system combining the established science of the oscillating water column with the company’s own patented turbine technology.

Rising and falling sea swells push and pull air past the turbine; its blades shift in response to the direction of the air flow, enabling the turbine to turn continuously in one direction. Electricity is then brought ashore through an undersea cable to a substation tied to the island electrical grid.

In Oceanlinx, Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric have found an excellent wave energy technology that appears to make sense for Hawaii and many other places as well.

The project could be operational by the end of 2011. The cost, borne by Oceanlinx and its investors, is estimated at $20 million. Oceanlinx will prepare an environmental impact statement for the project and apply for necessary permits and approvals.

Maui Electric Company is negotiating a purchase power agreement with Oceanlinx, which is subject to approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Oceanlinx has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Renewable Hawaii, Inc., an unregulated subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Company, for possible passive investment in the project.

More information on Oceanlinx (previously Energetech Australia Pty. Ltd. founded in 1997) is available on-line at www.oceanlinx.com.

Wave Energy on Oahu

Because Hawaii has among the most powerful waves per square meter in the world, the Office of Naval Research is monitoring an experimental wave energy buoy off Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. HECO is helping with the transmission connection to the electric grid.

The 40-kW experimental buoy, manufactured by Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. employs the bobbing motion of a buoy to drive an electrical generator.

More about Wave Energy

• US. Department of Energy