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Legal Disclaimer |
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Ocean Wave Energy in Canada – Where it Now Stands The Ocean Renewable Energy Group (OREG)3 is a non-profit organization whose mission is to align industry, academia and government to ensure that Canada is a leader in providing ocean energy solutions to a world market. OREG has about 100 Canadian and international members, and is a good source of information on ocean energy in Canada. These include ocean energy development companies, along with various supporting service providers, government agencies, and universities. The membership in OREG certainly shows that there is interest in the development of Canada’s ocean energy resources. The majority of the development companies in OREG now operates or proposes to operate tidal or tidal current facilities. Only eight of the development companies in OREG have wave energy converters as their products. And only one, Finavera Renewables of Vancouver, has actually begun the site survey process. Finavera received an Investigative Use Permit in August 2007 to enter on a 496 Hectare section of Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island near Ucluelet BC for ocean energy site investigation purposes. Unfortunately, on 6 February 2009, Finavera issued a press release stating it will be focusing its resources in the near and medium term on developing its wind projects. “The Company retains all Intellectual Property associated with the AquaBuOY technology and is actively seeking financial and technical partners for the future development of the technology.”  Finavera's AquaBuoy Photo: Finavera Renewables Inc. The International Energy Agency | Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES) provides information on international ocean energy companies. According to the IEA-OES Annual Report for 2008, there are only two companies that still have plans for ocean wave energy projects in Canada. SyncWave Energy Inc. (SEI) of Pemberton, BC, plans to develop its first-generation demonstration device off the west coast of Vancouver Island in late 2009-2010. Their Wave Power Resonator™ makes power by capturing the motion differential (phase lag) between two dissimilar float structures. Power is captured by a hydraulic power take-off, driving a permanent magnet DC generator. DC power from several SyncWave units in a wave farm will be collected and converted to AC power in a sea-bed mounted collector hub, then transmitted to shore by submarine cable for connection to a load. The device is designed to be certified to international marine construction standards, to last 20 years at sea before major refit, and to survive 100 year storm conditions while producing power.  SyncWave Power Resonator™ Photo: Syncwave Systems, Inc. The other company cited in the IEA-OES 2008 Annual Report is Wave Energy Technologies of Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia. WET’s EnGen™ uses its Smart Float™, which travels along a rigid spar at an incline of 45 degrees. The spar is moored at a single point of contact which allows the device to be fully compliant on all three axes (pitch, roll and yaw). Wave Energy Technologies has plans for installing a 40-kW WET EnGen™ at Sandy Cove, NS, as a pre-commercial demonstration project.  WET’s EnGen™ Diagram: Wave Energy Technologies In addition to work in the private sector, Canadian Government and Universities have some significant facilities to support ocean energy research. The Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT) of the National Research Council (NRC) provides a facility to assist in the growth and development of new ventures in ocean technology. The NRC’s Canadian Hydraulics Centre (CHC) specializes in the application of laboratory studies, numerical modeling, field investigations and engineering analysis to help understand and develop solutions to numerous real-world problems. Wave energy converters can be tested at large scale at the CHC facilities. There is also substantial expertise within Canada’s university sector that can enable the advancement of technologies in Canada. Despite Canada’s great potential for ocean wave energy, we have yet to see any commercial wave energy collectors installed. In fact worldwide commercial wave energy installations are still rare. Although there many companies that have overcome the challenges to harnessing ocean wave energy, there are still two main obstacles to overcome: |
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Among the wide variety of wave energy systems, competing against each other, there is no clear technology leaders. | |
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The wave systems that are closer to a commercial stage cost about three times more than onshore wind systems. |
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Clearly it will take time along with government and investor support to overcome these obstacles. At present nobody is willing to even estimate the time required to identify the technology leaders and to make them cost competitive. |
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