Creating waves in Oregon

Finavera Renewables has been issued a preliminary permit for its proposed 100MW Coos County, Oregon wave energy project.

The permit approval, granted by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a period of three years, will allow the company to conduct various surveys, including the analysis of oceanographic conditions, associated with its planned wave power project in the region.

The proposed Coos County project itself would use interconnected clusters of the company’s patented AquaBuOY wave energy devices that would be moored several kilometers offshore where the wave resource is the greatest.

The Oregon project would have a generating capacity of 100MW, and total annual generation from the project is estimated to be approximately 175 gigawatt-hours per-year, which is sufficient electricity to power approximately 15,000 American homes.

Once the surveys are completed, and following consultation with local stakeholders, the company palns to ‘micro-site’ the project within the proposed project area. The final installed offshore wave energy plant is expected to require an offshore project area between 2 and 3 square miles.