The U.S. Energy Department (DOE) announced $500,000 available in 2012 to support a project to deploy and test a wave energy conversion device for one year at the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site on the island of Oahu.

The funding will help the Energy Department provide technical support to test and evaluate the best wave energy options to provide power to U.S. Department of Defense facilities. These efforts complement an ongoing collaboration with the Navy to advance ocean energy technologies.

DOE estimates that there are over 1,170 TWh per year of electric generation available from wave energy off U.S. coasts, although not all of this resource potential can realistically be developed. The Navy has supported wave energy conversion research with the expectation that this technology can be used to assist DOD in reaching its agency goal of producing or procuring 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

The Energy Department expects to select a proposed wave energy device that is substantially complete and ready for testing and data collection without significant modification. The testing will include a comprehensive performance assessment—as well as a review of all pre- and post-deployment activities, operations and maintenance activities, and related analysis—to advance our understanding of these innovative technologies and identify areas of performance improvement that will benefit this emerging industry as a whole.

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