Irish wave energy development company Ocean Energy has signed a deal with a US firm in what the company says will be a “major milestone” in the development of wave power in Ireland.
Under the agreement, multinational Dresser-Rand will supply and develop turbines for the Irish company, which Ocean Energy says is an endorsement of its technology.
Thousands of Irish jobs could be created as part of a global wave energy market that is worth an estimated €200 billion each year, Ocean Energy said.
“As testament to Dresser-Rand’s belief in the potential of the wave energy sector and to the Ocean Energy buoy in particular Dresser-Rand have a designated product development team specifically tasked to develop air turbines for devices such as ours,” said Ocean’s chief executive John McCarthy
“We are the only company in the world Dresser-Rand have entered into a development and supply agreement and we see this not only an endorsement of our technology but of the Irish Government’s development strategy for the industry.”
The firm said it had successfully tested its quarter scale Ocean Energy Buoy over the last two and a half years at the Government’s test site in Galway Bay.
“It is the only device of its type to have undergone and survived such a rigorous testing including coping with a one in 40 year wave during the sea trials,” the company said in a statement.
In 2008, Dresser-Rand's UK subsidiary acquired some assets of Britiain's Peter Brotherhood last year, giving the company access to a patented air turbine targeted at the wave energy market.
"Marine renewable energy is becoming part of the renewable energy mix," said Dresser-Rand's vice president and chief marketing officer Brad Dickson.
"Capturing just 5 per cent of this theoretical global resource could satisfy 25 per cent of the current global electricity consumption of 18,000 TWh/year."
