An Israeli company that currently operates a wave-based power generating pilot plant in Haifa has sold two new models to China.  If it proves economical, prospects for further sales to China and others would seem to be very bright.  Thanks to my friend Jeff Stonberg for bringing this to my attention.

The Israelis’ claim the capital cost for their wave-generating station is far less than any other alternative including coal, gas, wind or solar.   Just on an intuitive basis and specifying that I know less than nothing about the subject, it sort of makes sense.  After all, wave action is constant.  It does not seem to require a great deal of  storage capacity since the electricity can be processed and piped almost directly into the grid, and the system should be mechanical and perhaps fairly simple.  

In January I reported about an American company that is proving out its own wave based power generation system and claims costs of under 4 cents per KW hour.  If the economics prove out, wave power could well become an important part of the petro-to-electrons transition program that will need to happen world wide over the next 25 or so years.  Here is a report on the Israeli project:

Israeli company to build sea wave power plants in China

By ISRAEL21c staff   
July 10, 2008

Israeli company S.D.E. Energy, developer of an innovative technology for generating electricity from sea waves, has signed an agreement for selling sea wave power plants in China for an undisclosed sum.
Construction of the power plants will be financed by investors from Hong Kong and China. Two joint venture companies, formed in Hong Kong for the purpose of the agreement by S.D.E. and its investors, will build an initial model in Guangzhou province in southern China. Should the model prove to be successful, it will launch the establishment of sea wave power plants throughout China.
The S.D.E. process is subject to the approval of the government of China, which it intends to target as the sole customer for the electricity generated.
Electricity shortages in China are worsening every day and current energy sources are problematic: fossil fuels increase the country’s already intolerable levels of air and environmental pollution; nuclear power plants and hydroelectric stations are highly susceptible to earthquake damage; typhoons make building wind farms extremely difficult, and solar systems are costly.
With prices of crude oil rising fast, there is new interest in alternative sources of energy, and the idea of generating power from sea waves is becoming increasingly attractive, according to S.D.E.
The Tel Aviv company’s system produces renewable and clean energy from sea waves, which it claims have the potential to supply four times more energy per square meter than wind power. The system’s advantages are high efficiency, ability to modulate energy storage capabilities, and relatively low cost for construction and generation of electricity.
According to S.D.E., the cost of erecting a one megawatt wave power station starts at $650,000, compared with $900,000 for a similarly-sized natural gas station; $1.5 million for a coal-fired or wind-powered station; and $3 million for a solar power station.
US investors have taken note of S.D.E.’s advances, managing director Shmuel Ovadia told ISRAEL21c. “We’re currently in talks to raise $100 million from US investors, and we’re negotiating building a 30 MW sea wave power plant in San Francisco at a cost of $20 million.”
The first commercial, full-scale model of the system, capable of generating 40 electrical kilowatts (eKW) has been working successfully for a year and is located at the Jaffa Port in Tel Aviv-Yafo.

Tags: peak oil energy investments

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm and is filed under electrical generation, wave power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.