Ocean Power Tech gets Oregon contract

New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies (Nasdaq: OPTT) said today Oregon's PNGC Power signed a deal to fund a West Coast demonstration of Ocean Power's wave power technology.

PNGC, formed in 1975 as the Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative, will pay $500,000 for the fabrication and ocean installation of a demonstration version of Ocean Power's PowerBuoy system.

Ocean Power said major portions of the system will be fabricated in Oregon and integrated near Reedsport, Ore.

The company received a preliminary permit in February from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a wave park of up to 50 megawatts in Reedsport.

Today's deal is for a 150 kilowatt PowerBuoy, with plans to initially generate a total of 2 MW approximately 2 1/2 miles off the coast.

Ocean Power said PNGC has an option to buy into or purchase power from the planned future upgrade to 50 MW at the wave power park.

The company's PowerBuoy's have a piston-like structure inside that moves as the buoy bobs with the rise and fall of the waves. The movement drives a generator, which produces electricity.

Most of the buoy is submerged below the water's surface. It's designed to be deployed in depths of 100 to 150 feet.

This is Ocean Power's fourth demonstration project. It's already dropped buoys into the water in Oahu, Hawaii, as part of a demonstration for the U.S. Navy, and in Atlantic City, N.J., for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. In Spain, the company is in development on a project for Iberdrola.

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