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CORVALLIS, Ore. - New grants, research advances and improved technologies developed by engineers at Oregon State University are moving wave energy in the United States closer to a working reality - and furthering the case for Oregon to be a national leader in this new energy concept.

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy, OSU researchers and Peregrine Power LLC, of Wilsonville, Ore., have been carrying out the first phase of a project to develop ocean wave energy systems. They are now applying for the second phase, a two-year, $750,000 initiative.

Other funding has been obtained from the National Science Foundation, and continued improvements are expected on "direct drive" devices that researchers believe hold the future of wave energy.

This month, a meeting will be held between OSU experts, the Oregon Department of Energy, utilities, industry representatives and other state and local agencies to determine the next steps in the move to create wave energy production and research facilities off the Oregon coast.

In the meantime, OSU has already applied for patents on some of its inventions and is moving ahead with the facility improvements needed to study this potentially huge source of clean energy. Experts have estimated that 0.2 percent of the ocean's untapped energy could power the entire world.

"We believe that ultimately one or two types of technologies to produce wave energy will be found to be the most durable and cost-effective, just as has happened with wind energy," said Annette von Jouanne, an OSU professor of electrical engineering and one of the nation's leaders in research on this topic. "And we think the direct drive concepts we're developing at OSU, instead of more complex hydraulic systems, in the end will prove to be the optimal technology."

Interest in developing wave energy in the United States has greatly expanded in just the past two years and several private companies already are thinking in terms of commercial production, in addition to further research and development programs, von Jouanne said. A wave energy production facility in the ocean near Reedsport, Ore., could be built even as research is continuing, officials say.

Although it's still in its engineering infancy, the vast power that waves contain and the fact the energy may be very environmentally friendly, with no greenhouse gas emissions, has caught the attention of developers, researchers and political leaders.

OSU hopes to become a lead player in the creation of a national wave energy research center in Oregon, in part because of the availability on campus of machine and drive research and testing facilities that are among the best in the world - at the OSU Motor Systems Resource Facility - and because of the capabilities of the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory.

In addition, the Reedsport, Ore., site being considered appears to offer an optimal combination of good wave action, an appropriate undersea terrain, and the presence of existing marine access and electric transmission lines that would facilitate creation of the nation's first commercial wave park.

The world's first production facility for wave energy is scheduled to be built this summer off of Portugal, von Jouanne said. It's possible the second such facility could be in Oregon. But there's still a lot of research and development to do before optimal technologies are finalized, experts say.

"Wave energy right now might be at about the stage of development that wind turbines were 20 years ago, when there were serious questions about the reliability and cost-effectiveness of wind power," said Dallas Marckx of Peregrine Power. "But with the help of university research, we should be able to work through the growing pains with this industry, bring down costs and build some systems that can stand up to very intense wave action."

Aside from technology, there are other obstacles to confront. A maze of permitting and regulatory issues need to be ironed out to allow use of a technology that has never before existed in the U.S. Possible biological impacts need to be studied, including the effects of electrical fields generated by transmission lines and the types of shielding needed to deal with them. Local residents, communities and agencies must be involved in every step of the initiative - everyone from coastal fishermen to utility companies.

OSU experts say they want to develop a "linear test bed" - a test platform to create the relative linear motion that buoys experience in waves - that would complement the research that can be done at other campus facilities. But the work is already moving ahead at good speed, von Jouanne said.

"We have three prototypes of our direct drive wave energy devices that are already under way, and one of them has the patent application completed and the rights to the technology licensed to private industry," she said. "It's not clear yet which approach will be the optimal one, but we believe all of these direct drive systems, compared to those based on hydraulics, will be mechanically simpler, more efficient, and better able to withstand hostile ocean conditions."

The approach being used by OSU is, in fact, based on simplicity. In one of the designs, a buoy anchored to the ocean floor a couple miles offshore literally bobs up and down in the steady ocean swells, causing electrical coils to move through a magnetic field, inducing a voltage and creating electricity.

It has been estimated that by using technology of this type, a modest sized network of about 200 buoys could power the business district of downtown Portland.