Though Renewable Energy Composite Solutions hasn't been in the "green" business long, this side project of Vancouver-based yacht-builder Christensen Shipyards, Ltd. has already found its next big renewable energy project.
Less than a year after securing $1 million in federal Recovery Act money for a project to manufacture vertical wind turbines, RECS announced on April 6 that it will join Virginia-based Science Applications International Corp. in developing a mobile ocean test berth, with funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy and the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center.
"There are so many people with great environmental concepts but no way of putting them together," said Joe Foggia, president of Christensen Shipyard. "We want to help transfer those ideas from paper into reality."
Based in Seattle, the renewable energy center is a joint-operation by Oregon State University and University of Washington, focusing on alternative forms of water energy. The Washington side is focused on tidal energy, whereas Oregon is focused on the unending motion of waves.
Cutting through the specifics regarding hydraulic chambers, oscillatory motion and elliptical trajectory, Foggia said the basic idea of the system was to harness wave power to create electricity. And though there are several wave energy systems currently in development, all use conductive surfaces and motion to create energy output, according to Foggia.
RECS will be responsible for fabricating and designing the hull of the mobile ocean test berth – basically a gigantic buoy which measures the performance of the test wave energy device. According to RECS operations director Brad Given, the project is expected to create 10 additional positions at RECS.
"Besides electrical output, the test berth will also measure environmental impact and other data, all while being unmanned," Foggia said.
The potential energy output from wave energy generators is not insignificant, according to Given. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average U.S. household consumes a kilowatt of energy at any given time of day. By comparison, wave devices can generate as much as a megawatt of energy – 1,000 times more than a kilowatt.
However, since much of the wave-generation technology is untested and unpatented, developers at the renewable energy center in Seattle will not disclose specifics regarding the devices to be tested by RECS. But one thing is clear: the Pacific Northwest provides unparalleled opportunity for wave generation technologies, according to Given. "The coasts of Washington and Oregon have the best wave profiles in the country for this kind of work," he said.
RECS isn't the only company involved in the project led by Science Applications International Corp. While the shipyard will handle the design and construction of the shell, other companies such as Glosten Associates of Seattle and Peregrine Power of Wilsonville, Ore. will be lending their expertise to the project.
"Everyone has their part to play," Given said. "But since we are part of a yacht manufacturer, we have experience putting electronics and sensitive machines out on the harsh ocean."
RECS was created partly as a way for Christensen Shipyard to rehire many of the workers it laid off at the beginning of the recent economic recession.
"Doing these green projects requires the same craftsmen, metal workers and electricians as yacht building did. We are just taking that same experience and diversifying it," Foggia said.
With both green projects funded and ready to take-off, Foggia said he sees a future where renewable energy helps solve two problems plaguing Southwest Washington – a lack of affordable energy and a crisis of joblessness.
"We are sitting on huge manufacturing capabilities waiting to be used, [as well as] airports, railroads and waterways to ship our goods," Foggia said. "Strategically bringing this area to the forefront of manufacturing … that's our goal."
Image caption:
The mobile ocean test berth,
developed with the help of
Christensen Shipyards in Vancouver,
will test the efficiency of various
ocean bound wave energy devices,
as well as their electrical output
and ecological effect.
