Revolutionary grid

Ocean Energy has deployed its 826-tonne wave energy converter buoy OE-35 at the US Navy's Wave Energy Test Site off the coast of the island of Oahu ahead of it being hooked up to Hawaii's electricity grid.

Measuring 125 x 59 ft (38 x 18 m) with a draft of 31 ft (9 m), the OE-35 was already a familiar sight in Kaneohe Bay on the Windward side of Oahu. Fixed just north of Mōkapu Peninsula, which is home to a US Marine Corps base that I became very familiar with years ago when its F-18 fighters used to go blasting over my anchored boat in the early morning.

The system has not only been tested in Hawaii, but also in Scotland as part of a US$12-million project funded by the US Department of Energy's office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). With a potential output of 1.25 MW, OE-35 harnesses energy from the waves using a remarkable double-flow air system.