OSU Engineers To Tap Oceans For Clean Energy

Story Posted: Tue, Jun 10, 2003

By Gregg Kleiner
SOURCES: Alan Wallace: 541-737-2995 Annette von Jouanne: 541-737-0831

CORVALLIS - Anyone who's ever walked near the pounding surf on an ocean beach or watched a tide charge through a channel knows that the perpetually moving waters of the world's oceans hold vast amounts of untapped energy.

Figuring out how to harness that energy and turn into electricity, however, is an age-old challenge.

But researchers in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University will soon employ innovation and the latest technology to discover viable ways of tapping the ocean as a source of clean energy.

Annette von Jouanne and Alan Wallace, professors in the OSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), have just received a two-year, $270,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that will enable them to design, implement, and test a prototype ocean energy extraction system that could result in new jobs for coastal economies, decreased shore erosion, and a clean source of renewable energy.

"Ocean energy is an idea whose time has come," said Wallace. "If only 0.2 percent of the untapped energy of the oceans could be harnessed, it could generate enough power to supply the entire world."

Although Ocean energy extraction has been researched for more than 200 years, new technologies and a growing demand for clean energy sources have prompted renewed interest in ways to extract energy from ocean waves, currents, and tidal changes.

Wallace and von Jouanne say the multi-disciplinary research project will utilize expertise and equipment in various OSU departments and facilities, and involve a number industry collaborators, including Energy Northwest, Bonneville Power Administration, Aqua Energy Group and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"This industry/university collaboration brings together a unique combination of resources and facilities unmatched anywhere else in the world," Wallace said.

The OSU facilities include the School of EECS's Motor Systems Resource Facility, the highest power laboratory of any university in North America; the Energy Resources Research Laboratory in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering where researchers are developing turbine models; and the Dept. of Civil Engineering's O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory that is currently undergoing a $4.8 million NSF-funded expansion that will house the world's largest tsunami research wave basin.

The OSU engineers hope that by collaborating with industry partners, the project will not only lead to economic development in Oregon, but will also help engineering students gain hands-on experience in the field of sustainable power.

"By engaging industry with academia, we will develop solutions with enormous economic impact potential, and we will also train the next generation of engineering talent to ensure low cost, clean, renewable and reliable power," von Jouanne said.

Von Jouanne and Wallace plan to collaborate with the OSU School of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences to make the university "a multidisciplinary pioneer of ocean energy extraction technology," they say.

Check out University news and events, and calendars.