Ocean Power Technologies Looks to Cash in on Wave Power

Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: OPTT), a Pennington, N.J.-based pioneer of wave-energy technology for autonomous power generation and the utility market, has been making moves in the emerging wave energy market.

OPT recently sold its first 40-kilowatt PowerBuoy®, an in-ocean device that generates electricity from waves, to the US Navy; plans to deploy one of two 150-kilowatt power buoys (currently being built) in Scotland; and has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to begin work on its next generation of 500-kilowatt buoys.

To date, the cleantech player has had a number of successful marine ventures, including the deployment of one of its power buoys at the Marine Corps Base in Hawaii earlier this year, part of a program with the US Navy to develop and test OPT's wave power technology. The company is also involved in projects with international partners in Japan, Australia and Spain.

Ocean energy, or creating power from waves, a clean, plentiful and inexhaustible source, has faced technological, financial and political hurdles which have until recently stymied attempts to establish commercial wave energy farms in the United States and Europe. But the tide is changing.

The ambitious form of renewable energy is gaining traction as the US government works to pass clean energy legislation and the fallout continues from the devastating BP oil spill.

Image credit: Ocean Power Technologies

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