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October 6, 2006

AquaBuOY Wave Energy Technology Advances

Dublin, Ireland & Vancouver, Canada [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]

The emerging wave energy sector is moving ahead with a project led by Finavera Renewables Ltd. and Dunlop Oil and Marine -- supported by a Carbon Trust Applied Research Grant. A key part of AquaEnergy's AquaBuOY technology, the Hose-Pump Validation Project, is an offshore wave energy converter whose successful completion marks the next step in its commercialization.

"The World Energy Council estimates that there is an accessible resource of 2 terawatts of renewable, clean energy available in the world's oceans. This is a potential resource equivalent to twice of the world's current electricity generation."

-- Jason Bak, Finavera Renewables, CEO

The Hose-Pump is part of the AquaBuOY wave energy technology from AquaEnergy Development UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Finavera Renewables. The hollow elastic cylinder can pump fluid when it is extended and contracted; when connected to a buoy, wave action can be harnessed to produce pressurized fluid via cyclic extensions. Multiple devices coupled to a standard hydropower turbine and generator provide a complete conversion solution, from wave energy to electricity.

The focus for this joint AquaEnergy and Dunlop Oil and Marine project, co-funded by the Carbon Trust's Applied Research Program, was to assess the Hose-Pump's mechanical and fatigue properties. The outcome of the project has successfully confirmed theoretical prediction of the Hose-Pump operating characteristic under static and dynamic test conditions.

The Carbon Trust provided a grant of GBP 168,000 [US $317,000] for this phase of commercialization to bring the technology to full-scale deployment. Finavera Renewables' planned first European project is a staged 100-megawatt (MW) deployment at Figuera de Foz, Portugal.

"The World Energy Council estimates that there is an accessible resource of 2 terawatts of renewable, clean energy available in the world's oceans," said Jason Bak, Finavera Renewables CEO. "This is a potential resource equivalent to twice of the world's current electricity generation."

Bak added, "In the U.S. alone, the available wave energy resource is estimated at 2,300 terawatt-hours per year or US$80.5 billion annually. Finavera Renewables is aggressively moving towards capturing this sustainable source of ocean energy in an economic way."
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