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Up-Date: Our wave energy buoy, above photo, has been in operation for four months so far, as of Nov 2, 2009. It is anchored in the water at a 28 meter depth with a transmission line run to shore. The electricity is stored in batteries along with energy from solar panels and wind turbines, the energy is used to power electrical equipment on the island.
Click on the blue letters to see videos.
We are manufacturing small scale devices and ship them to the licensing companies for testing, we believe this is the quickest way to build confidence in our product and essentially create a market for ocean energy converters.
100 kilowatts is the goal for each wave energy device. They are designed to be the lightest and most powerful per square foot of flotation in the ocean energy converter class. Many ocean energy converters use very heavy ballast weight making it hard to get the devices in and out of the water during servicing (that was the first hard lesson we learned in our ocean energy prototypes). Keeping the weight down is important to reduce the initial cost and make installing and servicing as easy as possible.
Swellfuel has several of the Lever Operate Pivoting Floats in the water around the world but is not able to expand on the details. We believe we will have power to a electric grid within four years. We have stayed self funded and solely owned to keep progress moving very quickly, although we always have are ears open to new ideas and relationships.
The device is very powerful, simple to build and easy to install. The survivability is the highest of all the 30 prototypes we have built and ocean tested.
Warning: Many university students have expressed interest in building ocean energy converters and we would like to give a word of caution, there are obvious and not so obvious dangers in constructing electrical devices. We highly recommend not using high voltage generators, not using flammable glues to seal buoys closed and do not use PVC pipe. Glue vapors may build up inside tightly sealed structures and possibly explode. Think before you invent.
Contact Christopher Olson 281-380-8954
