Micronesian island uses ocean power to become energy self-sufficient

Posted in: category1
on December 23, 2011

PETE DANKO, EARTH TECHLING & TOBY PRICE, RENEWABLE ENERGY MAGAZINE

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHN PAPINEAU

Kosrae, one of the four Federated States of Micronesia out in the western Pacific, is aiming to get nearly all of its electricity from the ocean. That sounds pretty daunting, but luckily, it doesn’t need much electricity. The 8,000 people who inhabit Kosrae’s 42 square miles now get by with five Caterpillar engine generators that have a combined capacity of 4,580 kilowatts, according to the Kosrae Utilities Authority. And reports say the state will soon have a new 1.5-megawatt wave energy system, offering it a good start toward its marine-power goal.

Koräe, part of the Federated States of Micronesia

Details are a little sketchy on the project, which we first learned about on the Renewable Energy Magazine website. That pointed us to Ocean Energy Kosrae, a joint venture between the utilities authority and Ocean Energy Industries, a New Jersey-based company that is supplying the wave device, called the WaveSurfer.

Blue clam, photographed by John Papineau

The company describes the WaveSurfer as a “point absorber” whose “main power conversion and generation parts are completely submerged at the depth of between 27 and 80 feet.” The company says this protects the device against damage from extreme storms.

According to Ocean Energy Industries: “Due to its unique design (patent pending) each WaveSurfer can be cost-effectively transported anywhere in the world and easily assembled at the installation site.” The company also says the device “does not contain expensive and complex parts, high precision hydraulics or air pumps … everything that makes other competing systems extremely expensive.”

World War II DC3 crashed in shallow water, Majuro Atoll

Micronesia’s 2010 energy plan [PDF], envisages Kosrae getting 85 percent of its energy from wave power by 2015, with solar and hydro perhaps contributing the remaining 15 percent. It’s not the only island looking to go all-green: Earlier this year, the government of the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, vowed to generate all its electricity from renewable sources use by 2020.