wave energy - Green Prophet

Ivanpah: the value of first-of-line green energy projects, even when they fail

Karin Kloosterman — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 06:50:04 +0000

A major solar power plant project called Ivanpah, that was granted over a billion dollars in US Government federal loans is now on the road to closing two of its three units, with energy experts labeling it a “boondoggle”. While critics argue that the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility is another example of government waste, it’s essential to recognize the role such first-in-line projects play in advancing clean energy.

In 2011, the US Department of Energy (DOE) under former President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in loan guarantees to finance the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a project consisting of three solar concentrating thermal power plants in California. At the time, then-Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz called it an “example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.”

The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a $2.2 billion concentrated solar plant in California, was once hailed as a breakthrough in renewable energy.

It was a time when spending on green energy projects was flush, starting with a boon around 2006 and 2007. Investors and government subsidizers were looking to fund dreams and Ivanpah promised a world with free energy harnessed from the sun.

Solar thermal versus photovoltaic PV panels

Solar thermal technology uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight, generating heat that produces steam to drive a turbine for electricity. It is known to kill birds that pass by it, attracted to the light. In contrast, photovoltaic (PV) panels convert sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductor materials. While solar thermal can include energy storage with molten salt, PV is generally cheaper, more efficient, and easier to scale.

Ashalim is producing power but local financial estimates say it was not worth the cost.

Ashalim producing power in 2022. You will see a blinding light when you drive by it in the desert

Now, after more than a decade, Ivanpah is set to shut down 2 out of 3 of its units. The facility never lived up to its energy production goals and required backup natural gas to stay operational. Its primary buyer, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), has canceled its agreement 14 years early, citing cost savings for customers. Critics argue that the plant was not only financially unsustainable but also had environmental drawbacks, such as harming wildlife in the Mojave Desert.

The plant’s operators plan to begin closing units in early 2026, with decommissioned units potentially being repurposed for photovoltaic solar energy production. Operator NRG Energy plans to shut down two-thirds of the Ivanpah Solar CSP plant after Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) decided to terminate two power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the facility to save ratepayers money.

Ivanpah sp;ar energy panels

But while Ivanpah may not have been a commercial success, dismissing it entirely as a failure ignores the bigger picture. Groundbreaking energy projects often face immense technical, financial, and environmental challenges—many of which only become apparent through real-world implementation. These projects are bold experiments that inform future innovations, providing invaluable lessons that improve the next generation of technology.

Ivanpah isn’t the only example. The solar thermal plant at Ashalim in Israel also fell short of expectations, proving too costly to compete with newer photovoltaic solar technologies. Similarly, MASDAR City in the United Arab Emirates, envisioned as a fully sustainable zero-energy metropolis, has struggled to achieve its initial ambitions and remains sparsely populated. We have an intern dispatch what it’s like. However, these efforts have contributed to advancements in green energy, from refining solar technology to informing large-scale urban sustainability planning.

Even failed projects serve as milestones on the road to a more sustainable energy future. Without Ivanpah and other early ventures, the solar industry wouldn’t be where it is today—producing cheaper, more efficient energy. Green innovation requires trial and error, and while not every project will be a financial success, the lessons they provide are often worth far more than their price tag. Saudi Arabia, for instance, is investing in hydrogen energy projects which may never be commercially viable without massive investments to sustain them. So let’s see “failing” as an outcome of bravery.

Ivanpah wasn’t the first to fail.

Ivanpah is connected to Israel through BrightSource Energy, the company that developed the solar thermal technology used in the plant. BrightSource is an Israeli-founded company specializing in concentrated solar power (CSP). The same technology used in Ivanpah was later implemented in Ashalim, a large CSP plant in Israel’s Negev Desert. Both projects faced challenges related to efficiency, cost, and environmental concerns, highlighting the difficulties of scaling solar thermal technology.

Ashalim, developed and owned by EDF Renewables, is operating today, but at a loss. There are more than 25 similar CSP towers across the world, including China, Spain, Morocco and the United States — but only one, in the United Arab Emirates, stands taller than the plant in Ashalim, Israel.

An Israeli business newspaper, Calcalist, called the Ashalim power plant “one of the saddest stories” in the history of Israeli infrastructure. Others say the tower’s more expensive energy is, in fact, almost imperceptible to Israeli citizens, since the higher cost is spread across the millions of consumers on the national grid.

Let’s look at a few failed power plants from the west:

1. Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project (USA)

Investment Cost: $1 billion
ROI: Negative – declared bankrupt in 2020
What Happened? Crescent Dunes, a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Nevada, was backed by a $737 million federal loan guarantee. It was supposed to provide 10 hours of energy storage using molten salt technology, allowing it to generate power even after sunset. However, persistent technical failures—including leaks in the molten salt storage system—resulted in multiple shutdowns. In 2019, its sole customer, NV Energy, terminated its contract, leading to its financial collapse.

2. Kemper Clean Coal Plant (USA)

Investment Cost: $7.5 billion
ROI: Negative – converted to natural gas after exceeding budget by $5 billion
What Happened? The Kemper Project in Mississippi was designed to be the first large-scale “clean coal” power plant using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Initially estimated to cost $2.4 billion, expenses ballooned to $7.5 billion due to construction delays, cost overruns, and unproven technology. In 2017, after years of setbacks, the project was abandoned as a clean coal facility and converted to a conventional natural gas plant, making its CCS ambitions a complete failure.

3. Pelamis Wave Energy Project (Scotland)

Investment Cost: Estimated £100 million+ (~$130 million)
ROI: Negative – company went bankrupt in 2014
What Happened? Pelamis was one of the first large-scale attempts at harnessing wave energy. It deployed snake-like floating devices off the coast of Scotland to generate electricity from ocean waves. While the technology showed promise, it struggled with durability, maintenance costs, and efficiency. After failing to secure further investment, the company went bankrupt in 2014, demonstrating the difficulties of making wave energy commercially viable.

These examples highlight the immense challenges of scaling up new energy technologies. Despite their failures, they provided valuable lessons that inform ongoing advancements in solar, clean coal, and wave energy.

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Wave power collector opens at ancient port city on the Mediterranean

Karin Kloosterman — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:59:50 +0000

Eco Wave Energy at the Jaffa Port

Located in the same ancient port where Jonah sailed off and made his fate with the whale, is a new wave-collecting power plant that officially went online this month. Though it’s been in place for a number of years as a pilot and generally inactive, the city of Jaffa welcomed the municipal company Atarim, in collaboration with Eco Wave Power and EDF Renewables Israel, to Israel’s first pilot station for generating electricity from sea waves.

Eco Wave Power is a NASDAQ-listed company (ticker: WAVE) holding 18 patents for innovative wave energy technologies. In addition to the Jaffa pilot station, the company is planning projects in the Port of Los Angeles with Shell and in Porto, Portugal, where its first commercial station will be built.

The company’s technology connects floaters to existing marine structures like breakwaters and piers. These floaters rise and fall with the waves, powering a hydraulic motor and generator located onshore. The system includes smart controls that lift the floaters out of the water during storms to prevent damage.

The project is led by Eco Wave Power founder and CEO Inna Braverman, a graduate of the “Women for Climate” program from the group C40.

Developed by the company Eco Wave Power, the station was built in collaboration with EDF Renewables. The power station is recognized as “pioneering technology” by the Ministry of Energy. For the first time, electricity generated from sea waves will power the country’s national grid—a historic milestone in the country’s renewable energy progress.

The city which is aiming to brand itself as a green city, says this launch “marks a significant step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and advancing sustainable energy, reinforcing Tel Aviv’s status as a global innovation leader.” High-tech center, yes, green city –– um, not always. The city’s lack of financial support to one of its foundational cultural centers, the East West House (no comment from the Mayor Ron Huldai) and indecisions about cutting down trees don’t make it a green city, just because the city wishes it so.

Wave energy collectors, Jaffa. By Green Prophet.

Middle Eastern Jewish and Arab musical culture, ancient trees: these things make a city sustainable and shouldn’t be pushed aside to make way for “green progress” according to a ledger. The concept is ridiculous. Electric bikes and lack of speeding laws and order make Jaffa an un-walkable city in some of the busier areas. Plastic bags are given out freely. Residents barely compost or recycle home waste. The recent light rail train going online, however, has upgraded the city by 1000%. The CDP group gives Tel Aviv and A- for Sustainability.

Are you a woman for climate change? Check out C40 here. Maybe you can join.

::EcoWave

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Eco Wave Power tests pilot at Israeli seashore

Karin Kloosterman — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 07:39:32 +0000

We just supported the release of a UN report so bankers can invest in the sea and on top of the acing infrastructure in the shipping industry that needs updating, we can also support new endeavours that help the sea help us.

The Israeli company Eco Wave Power has started building energy collection floaters at the ancient port city of Jaffa, in Israel.

Update 2024: Eco Wave opens its pilot full speed at the sea

The onsite work will includes clearing the top cement layer of the relevant sections of the sea wall, followed by adding steel rebars for reinforcement and finally the creation of a new cement layer, which shall provide the necessary support for the installation of the floaters.

In parallel, the company has started the production of ten floaters, which are expected to arrive to site in conjunction with the finalization of the works on the sea wall.

Eco Wave Energy at the Jaffa Port

“We have previously finalized the assembly of our conversion unit and now moving forward to the most exciting part of our project, which is the installation works. We cannot wait to finalize the floaters production and installation of the whole array, which will enable us to send clean electricity from sea waves to the Israeli national electrical grid for the very first time,” said Inna Braverman, Founder and CEO of Eco Wave Power.

The Jaffa energy project will include 10 floaters, connected to one conversion unit. Due to the onshore nature of the Eco Wave Power technology, the works on the sea wall and floaters installation will be straightforward and will not involve any works performed from the seaside. The Eco Wave Power one project is executed in collaboration with EDF Renewables and co-funding from the Israeli Energy Ministry.

Eco Wave Power is an onshore wave energy technology company that developed a patented, smart and cost-efficient technology for turning ocean and sea waves into green electricity. Eco Wave Power’s mission is to assist in the fight against climate change by enabling commercial power production from ocean and sea waves.

Investing in wave power

Eco Wave Power’s project in Gibraltar has received funding from the European Union Regional Development Fund and from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 framework program. The company has also received the “Climate Action Award” from the United Nations.

Eco Wave Power’s common shares (ECOWVE) are traded on Nasdaq First North Growth Market.

Want to learn more about investing in the sea? This new UN report explores investment-worthy areas for bankers.

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SDE Wave Energy To Surf Kenya’s Coast

Tafline Laylin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:25:33 +0000

SDE Energy has been given the go-ahead by Kenya’s Energy Ministry to develop a wave energy plant on its coast.

The Israeli firm SDE Energy has defied the larger wave energy corporations with its sleek wave energy designs. Suited for places that aren’t on the list of top wave-producers such as China, India, and Israel, his technology is increasingly competitive as oil prices soar. Now Kenya, which is striving to become East Africa’s most power industrial nation, and no stranger to alternative energy, has commissioned the firm to conduct tests on its coast with the intention to build a 100MW wave energy plant.Kenya’s Ministry of Energy approved SDE’s plans to work with the local company Sea Wave Gen in order to build the plant. This furthers the country’s aim to produce approximately 1300 MW of their energy supply with renewable energy.

Given the escalating costs of fossil fuels, SDE Energy’s technology is becoming increasingly financially viable. It is also competitive in the renewable department. One wave energy plant costs almost half as much as a coal or wind-power plant the same size and fives times less than a solar plant.

None of the experts consider Kenya’s Indian Ocean locale ideal for harvesting wave energy, but the company has managed to exploit an overlooked market. While large firms in the North Sea and elsewhere are developing massive wave energy plants, SDE is focusing on smaller plants.

For over one year, SDE’s plant in Jaffa has produced a steady 40kWh. While fairly insignificant in the broader scheme, there is certainly opportunity for growth. Plus, a diverse energy portfolio is the healthiest energy portfolio.

“The system harnesses wave’s speed, height, depth, rise and fall and the flow beneath to produce energy. The model has been approved by experienced engineers,” according to the company’s Managing Director Mr. Shmuel Ovadia.

:: allAfrica

More on SDE Energy:

SDE Energy and India Make Waves With Tidal Power

SDE Makes Wave Energy in China With 1MW Plant

Israel’s First Tidal Plant Completed In Jaffa

image via mikebaird

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The “Saudi Arabia” Of Renewable Energy

Tafline Laylin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:34:16 +0000

Finally! Researchers put skeptics to rest as the “Saudi Arabia” of renewable energy takes off in Northern Scotland.

Harnessing the ocean’s extraordinary energy potential is no easy feat. Though the seas are difficult to tame and have swallowed more than one piece of equipment, Israel has managed to reign in that rogue power with a modest size facility in Jaffa. But the real celebrities in the ocean energy movement, thanks to the superior strength of their tides and waves and longstanding research commitment, hail from the United Kingdom. Their marine might is so superior, in fact, that John Ross with The Scotsman says the uninhabited Stroma island in Northern Scotland has the potential to become the “Saudi Arabia” of renewable energy.

Island in the stream

Stroma, which means “island in the stream,” is situated smack dab in the middle of one of the world’s strongest tidal streams in the Pentland Firth. As such, it is the perfect site for wave and tidal energy projects.

“One of the world’s best marine resources, the Pentland Firth Strategic Area encompasses the Pentland Firth and the waters around Orkney, and takes in more than half the top ten tidal development sites in the UK,” according to Mr. Ross

“It provides an exploitable energy output potential estimated to be up to 10GW, or equivalent to several large nuclear power stations,” he added.

On Monday, a new Automatic Weather Station (AWS) will go “live” that will provide the most up to date weather records possible; this in turn will render renewable energy trials safer and more accurate.

Giant weather station

“The 30ft high AWS has been developed by the Environmental Research Institute (ERI), based in Thurso. Foundation work on the two-mile long island began in October 2009 and system trials were completed in early September,” Mr. Ross wrote.

Professor Stuart Gibb, director of ERI, told The Scotsman:

“This new weather station will give us a much better picture of the conditions in the area on an hourly basis. This in turn will be an excellent aid for research and also safety, as people can better judge when their activities take place there.”

Earlier this year, the Crown Estate added 1.2 GW of marine energy projects in the Pentland Firth, setting the stage for a new power.

:: The Scotsman

More cleantech news:

New Eilat-Eilot Clean Tech Center May Boost Solar And Wind Energy Projects

BrightSource Prepares for NASDAQ IPO

Under Highway Piezoelectric “Generators” Could Provide Power to Propel Electric Cars

image via the tahoe guy

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Can Shmuel Ovadia’s SDE Wave Energy Compete with World’s Largest Wave Power Hub?

Maurice Picow — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:28:02 +0000

Wave energy may be Mankind’s future energy resource.

Generating electricity from ocean currents and waves is still far from being an accomplished reality, despite efforts being made by innovators like Shmuel Ovada and his SDE wave energy company. But now, the idea of using the tremendous power of the sea to create energy is much closer to practical reality with the completion of what is being hailed as the world’s largest wave power hub that is estimated to be able to produce as much as 187,000 MWh of electricity per year.

The Wave Hub

The device, known as a wave hub, is currently being tested in the Atlantic Ocean, about 12 miles off the English coastal town of Hayle. The Wave Hub weighs about 12 tons, costs $64 Million or 41 Million Pounds Sterling, and is said to be able to generate about 5 MW of electrical power on each of it’s four “arms.” The amount of electricity produced would be enough to provide power for as many as 20,000 homes.

The Wave Hub’s unique design is said to be able to produce more electricity than older buoy designs now in operation off the coast of Spain, and SDE’s 60 KW test model now in operation off the coast of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv.

Wave energy devices are still considered to be cumbersome, and when installed take up a certain amount of surface area in the water. However, the Wave Hub’s specially designed generators built into each hub arm, takes up much less space in the water, and is capable of generating more electricity.

Despite the optimistic claims of the Wave Hub’s designers, Ovadia’s SDE Energy company is generating plenty of interest of its own – especially in countries in Africa, China and India.

The idea of harnessing the power of natural forces like the wind and ocean waves has been one of mankind’s dreams for eons. Now it appears that these ideas are becoming reality with wind turbines in use all over the world, solar energy plants in operation in many countries, and geo-thermal energy plants in operation as well.

Renewable energy generated by these means is virtually 100% clean; and in the long run will be significantly beneficial to our planet. If the Wave Hub’s design works out, and is combined with devices like the ones that SDE produces, a considerable amount of clean energy can be produced.

Governmental authorities in Ovadia’s native country, Israel, should well consider investing more in wave and other forms of renewable energy instead of pursuing natural gas in under water gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The environmental advantages of renewable energy over fossil fuels, including natural gas, far outweigh the short term benefits of a fuel; even though it is a bit cleaner than oil, natural gas is still a contributor to global warming.

As for wave energy, what can be cleaner than the pounding of the tides against either buoys or hub arms?

:: SDE Energy Cleantechnica.com

Read more on wave and other types of renewable energy:

Israel’s First Tidal Power Plant Completed in Jaffa

Seanergy Rides and Holds Wave Power

Ormat Taps into Thermal Energy in Indonesia

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Israel’s First Tidal Power Plant Completed In Jaffa

Matt Khoury — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:20:03 +0000

It’s where the ancient biblical story Jonah and the Whale took place. Now SDE Energy builds tidal energy plant in Jaffa, which should expand to 50 MW.

The ancient port city of Jaffa, today a part of Tel Aviv, has added one more attraction to its historical harbor as a new sea wave power plant is completed.

The Israeli tidal wave energy firm S.D.E. have completed the construction of its first large scale sea wave power plant capable of producing 60 KWh.

The new plant only has one buoy and is fully automated with only 10 percent of it in the water so to minimize the risk of damage to the system by storms and other natural disasters. The company already has business in China, India, and in Africa.

The plant which is the ninth completed by the firm is the initial part of a plan the will lead to a 50 MW plant in the breakwaters of Jaffa, when finished to new plant will not only provide cost efficient renewable centricity to the port but also prevent the erosion of the breakwater usually caused by high wave. The firm has come to an agreement with Israel’s Electric Company to sell the electricity from the news plant at of 12 cents per KW.

SDE, which has received support from the office of the Chief Scientist of Israel, Ministry of Industry and Trade, hope that the new plant will be the springboard for a larger expansion outside Israel.

“There was an intensive interest in S.D.E’s unique technology even before SDE had an operational model; however, now, when SDE has an operational model, I believe that the development and growth of the company will be unstoppable,” Inna Braverman International Marketing and business development Manager of the group of SDE companies said in a press release.

Among the factors the SDE says speaks in their advantage includes a competitive price: The erection cost of a 1MW S.D.E’s power station starts from $650,000 while a comparable station costs $1,500,000 from coal, $900,000 from natural gas, $3,000,000 from solar sources, and $1,500,000 from wind.”

The system that S.D.E has developed is able to supply 500 times more than the electricity requirements of the whole world population according the company.

While the possibility to create renewable energy from wave is huge, after all most of the planet is cover by water, the technology is only is still considered to be experimental.

The energy is produced by electricity generators placed on the surface of the sea and the output is determined by a combination of factors such as wave height, wavelength, wave speed and the density of the water.

The technology of producing electricity from sea waves is innovative and a leading method worldwide. Pollution and global warming as a result of fuel usage have taught the world that the largest world resource to create electricity is sea waves. The system has the highest efficiency in the world by the new method and is offered for a very attractive price. SDE had international patent and also patents pending.

::SDE website

Read more about SDE Energy:
SDE Energy in China
SDE Energy in India
SDE Energy in Africa

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SDE Makes Wave Power in China Where It's Completing 1 MW Power Plant Deal

Karin Kloosterman — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:45:55 +0000

Sunnier days for smog-ridden China ahead? The next wave in China may be clean energy culled from the sea. Image via ivanwalsh

The Israeli clean tech company SDE is finalizing the construction of the first of a number of sea wave power plants to be installed in China during the upcoming month, the company reports today. The 1MW sea wave power plant will be installed in the province of Guangzhou, in the city of Dong Ping, and will represent the successful beginning of the implementation of an overall 10,000MW plan to be executed in Guangzhou.

SDE’s officials including Shmuel Ovadia, Managing Director of SDE flew to China in order to conduct several meetings with the Mayor of Dong Ping and with a large governmental foundation, that expressed its interest in funding SDE’s project all over China. The mayor had also expressed his keen interest in the development of the sea wave power plants all over the city.

Similar sea wave power projects will be built in Nan San Inland of Zhan Jiang city, where the Beach is 24 KM and the wave’s height it between 2-3 meters, as well as in the province of Hainan, in which SDE’s partners are in the final stages of negotiations.

China has a great need for the swift implementation of SDE’s sea wave power technology due to the high rates of pollution in the country, according to a company press briefing issued today. Time Magazine calls the Chinese cities Linfen and Tianying as the world’s two most polluted cities, and the World Bank has reported that 16 of 20 most polluted cities in the world are Chinese. Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Apparently, only one percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union.

According to the Ministry of Health, the pollution in China had made cancer the country’s leading cause of death. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year and nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.

China has many industrial cities where people rarely see the sun, children are killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution and the coastline is so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.

According to Wang Jinan, one of China’s leading environmental researchers, “There is a pressure for change, but many people refuse to accept that we need a new approach so soon.” China’s leaders also recognize that they must change course. They are vowing to embrace a new development model, which will allow for steady economic and industrial growth while protecting the environment.

SDE’s sea wave power technology can help palliate China’s growing woes: it will provide China with a clean and cost-efficient source of energy, which will minimize the pollution ranks in the country, and avoid causing harm to the steady economic and industrial growth of the country.

Currently, the Government has numerical targets for reducing emissions and conserving energy, and major initiatives are on the way to develop clean energy sources, like solar, wind and sea wave energy.

The technology of producing electricity from sea waves is innovative and a leading method worldwide. Pollution and global warming as a result of fuel usage have taught the world that the largest world resource to create electricity is sea waves. With this new method, the system has the highest efficiency in the world and is offered by a very attractive price. SDE has international patent and also patents pending. To this day, the company has built 8 sea wave power plant models, which were financed, checked, and approved by the Israeli Government.

The erection cost of a 1MW S.D.E’s power station starts from US $650,000 while a comparable coal station costs US $1.5 million, a natural gas station US $900,000 a solar station US $3 million from solar sources, and a wind station from $1.5 million In addition, S.D.E’s production cost per KW is only US 2 cents, compared to US 3 cents from coal, US 3.5 cents from natural gas, US 12 cents from solar energy, and US 3.6 cents from wind.

More on SDE and wave power:
SDE and India Make Wave Power
SDE Signs Wave Power Deal With Africa
Ovadia’s SDE Wave Energy Company More Than a Pipe Dream

::SDE

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Seanergy Rides and Holds Wave Power

Karin Kloosterman — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:18:40 +0000

It can harness 20 times more energy than any other wave technology in existence today and also produce carbon-free desalinated water. How? Seanergy ‘holds the waves.’

To wean America off polluting and politically unstable foreign oil, government members and legislators are advocating technologies such as solar, wind, geothermal and also wave energy to develop new sources of power. President Obama is pushing for green jobs and Americans want them.

Inspired by children playing with a beach ball at the seaside, Shlomo Gilboa an Israeli politician-turned-inventor has invested millions of his own dollars in Seanergy, a new company and product that share a name. Seanergy harvests the energy of ocean waves through an offshore farm of buoys. It could be the next technology adopted by American utility companies, if Gilboa has his way.

In an interview with ISRAEL21c, Gilboa relates that the technology now being tested off the coast of Haifa can harness 20 times more power from wave energy than any other similar technology in existence today.

“Our harvesting system from the sea produces at least 20 times more energy than conventional or non-conventional buoys,” says Gilboa, who is also the company’s CEO. “In our system, we manage to ‘hold the wave’. Usually it’s come and gone in a second. But we manipulate it, holding the wave level in a reservoir in the buoy, to capture it.”

Popping up in a burst of power

The buoy literally shoots up when it reaches the crest of the wave: “With the same impact as when you take a ball and put it underwater in the swimming pool and it pops up in a huge burst of energy,” explains Gilboa. “We are harvesting this special energy. No other system in the world comes close.”

Seanergy is currently working with the Israel Electric Corporation and has been endorsed by engineers at the University of Haifa.

Gilboa says that while generating electric power, the system also produces a significant amount of carbon-free desalinated water. He estimates that a million cubic meters of desalinated water will be produced by a Seanergy farm that covers a 300 square meter (about 3,229 square foot) patch of water at sea. While traditional desalination plants can produce orders of magnitudes more water, unlike Seanergy they require an extensive amount of energy input to the system.

Currently a number of large and small companies around the world are negotiating with the company about a first facility, which will require a $2 million investment for four, four-buoy clusters. Gilboa says that according to the most conservative projection, the Seanergy buoy system, which sits below the surface of the waves and pops up as it collects energy, can pay for itself in feed-in tariffs within three years.

Making waves

To illustrate his point, Gilboa describes the Seanergy cluster in a region off the coast of Oregon in the US. Each buoy there can generate 1 megawatt of power, which over a year amounts to 200 to 250 kilowatts per cluster. According to the Cnet tech journal, that’s enough to power about 80 homes. The amount generated at any given site is a function of the wave action potential there.

Companies all over the world are attempting to capture the power of waves and there are a plethora of what appear to be zoologically-inspired prototypes that range from the bizarre to the sublime.

There are massive ‘snakes’ (655-foot-long anaconda devices), ‘oysters’ (large hydraulic flaps that open and close) and ‘dragons’ (contraptions with long arm-like devices that direct waves up a ramp toward an offshore reservoir). The weird-looking snakes move hypnotically through the waves.

Of these, Gilboa credits potential competitors such as the Scottish-based Pelamis and New Jersey’s Ocean Power Technologies as two wave technology companies that “add real value to the market.”

15 years of development

Seanergy presented its prototype at the “Innovation” pavilion in the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry’s NEWTech division for the estimated 19,000 people who attended the international Watec conference in Tel Aviv in November. NEWTech promotes Israeli water technologies worldwide.

Although the company was officially formed in 2008, the idea has been in development for about 15 years, and millions of dollars of personal financing were invested in the prototype. Based in Haifa, Seanergy employs a small staff of four, but has worked with more than 100 consultants and specialists to get its prototype to ‘float.’

At the Haifa National Museum of Science Seanergy is presented as an important and radical new green technology. In the near future, you may see its buoys bouncing around a coast near you.

(This story has been reprinted courtesy of ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org)

More wave energy on Green Prophet:
SDE and India Make Waves With Tidal Power
SDE’s Wave Energy Plant Installed in Africa
SDE Wave Energy More Than a Pipe Dream

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Can Israel's Prime Minister's Alternative Energy Agenda Help the Middle East?

Maurice Picow — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:25:17 +0000

BrightSource solar energy company could be part of the alternative energy solution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be interested in leading his country away from its current dependence on imported oil and into various forms of alternative energy. But he wants his vision to go far beyond the borders of the tiny State of Israel and for it to be a goal for other nations to strive for as well.

In a recent address at the 2009 Israeli Presidential Conference that occurred October 20-22 in Jerusalem, the Prime Minister spoke about a national project for “developing an alternative to oil within 10 years”.

Although he didn’t present a concrete plan for reaching this accomplishment, he compared this idea with other accomplishments his country has achieved in the technological and medical fields and added that the citizens of his country have two great resources: “minds and hearts” as well as the “desire and ability” to wean Israel away from an energy source that continues to feed the coffers of countries who actively sponsor terrorism; saying that “dependence on fossil fuels strengthens the dark regimes that encourage instability and fund terror with their petrodollars”.

So just how is Mr. Netanyahu planning to go about developing this grand project that will take much more than just “minds and hearts” to accomplish?

If one takes into account the number of alternative and renewable projects that have been going in Israel and conducted by Israeli companies abroad in the last few years alone, it appears that this little country of 7.4 million souls is already well on its way to accomplishing the Prime Minister’s goal.

Just a few of these projects featured on Green Prophet includes solar energy , bio-fuels from algae, energy from ocean waves, in which Israel is already a world leading innovator, and the predicted dominance of electric powered cars and other vehicles by the year 2030.

While Israel is being slammed in the international arena for its military actions in the January Operation Cast Lead war with Gaza, it is also being recognized as a world innovator in the fields of alternative and renewable energy, as well as in a host of other fields, especially in information technology and bio-technology.

Although Netanyahu is being criticized by some for not seeming to have an exact alternative energy plan, as noted in an article on October 29 in the Haaretz newspaper, it does appear that these “energy plans” are already being worked on by companies like Ormat Industries Solel Solar Systems, recently purchased for $418 million by the German industrial giant Siemens, and Better Place electric cars, which has entered into an agreement with Israel Railways to set up electric car recharging stations at the country’s railway stations; as well as by numerous other companies.

And while no significant “breakthroughs” are currently in place to immediately wean both Israelis and the rest of world away from the fossil fuels that fill the pockets of people like Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and the Saudi Royal Family, at least there are enough energy innovations underway to stimulate the “desire and ability” to enable this dream to become reality, as Mr. Netanyahu hopes it will.

Photos via www.brightsource.com and Israel President’s Conference Official site

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