Finavera Renewables says it has received an “Investigative Use Permit” from the B.C. government allowing it to study the feasibility of a wave-energy project for a period of two years off the coast of Vancouver Island, near the beautiful town of Ucluelet (which, by the way, is located in one of the most stunning places in Canada). The company will use the permit to study everything from the potential impact on fishing activity in the area to the height and frequency of waves to the economics of deployment and connection to transmission. The project proposed would begin at 5 megawatts with plans to expand to 100 megawatts — quite substantial. In total, Finavera now has five wave projects proposed or under development in a number of countries, including Canada, the United States and South Africa. The company also has a number of wind projects on the go.

Finavera’s technology is called AquaBuOY and is described as follows on the company’s Web site:

Clusters of these small, modular devices called AquaBuOYs are moored several kilometers offshore where the wave resource is the greatest. The power plants are scalable from hundreds of kilowatts to hundreds of megawatts… Energy transfer takes place by converting the vertical component of wave kinetic energy into pressurized seawater by means of two-stroke hose pumps. Pressurized seawater is directed into a conversion system consisting of a turbine driving an electrical generator. The power is transmitted to shore by means of a secure, undersea transmission line. A cluster of AquaBuOYs would have a low silhouette in the water. Located several miles offshore, the power plant arrays would be visible to allow for safe navigation and no more noticeable than a small fleet of fishing boats.

Now, two years just to study the feasibility is, well, a long time away from actually producing megawatts of power — but it’s a start. One has to also wonder how a company with virtually no revenues and big quarterly losses is going to convince investors to finance these projects when a predictable revenue stream is still a couple years away, at least. I wish them luck.

BTW: there’s a good overview of renewable energy alternatives, including wave and in-stream tital power, in a recent article appearing in the latest issue of the Electric Power Research Institute Journal. It’s worth a read for an update. And check out the renewable technology development chart that appears on page 15.

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