C-Power's graphic rendering of a deployed SeaRAY AOPS (Courtesy of C-Power)
POWER IN AND DATA OUT
HOW C-POWER’S SEARAY AOPS STARTS THE FUTURE OF THE OCEAN ECONOMY TODAY On a warm, sunny morning in July, nearly a dozen officials from C-Power, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) crowded around a large, yellow metal tube. Arrival of this tube—a nacelle, actually, undergoing a series of pre-deployment tests at NREL’s Flatirons campus in land-locked Colorado, USA—was also eagerly awaited by members of the U.S. Navy.
What coalesced the interest of these powerful forces advancing cutting-edge innovation, not to mention numerous other public and private industry partners? The short answer is to find out how clean, abundant power best gets produced offshore. The longer answer starts on the campus of Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon.
THE MARKET WAS SPEAKING. IT WAS ASKING FOR POWER IN AND DATA OUT. From a technology licensed over a decade ago from OSU, C-Power looked to develop a cost-effective system to convert ocean wave energy to electricity. This original technology concept was intended to provide utility-scale power for homes and businesses.
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