REEDSPORT
Reedsport OPT Wave Park
— a subsidiary of the publicly traded New Jersey-based
Ocean Power
Technologies — filed an application with the U.S.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this summer for a
preliminary permit to test the feasibility of a wave park about
three miles off the coast of Reedsport, the first utility-scale
wave power project in this country. The project would
eventually generate 50 megawatts from 200 buoys at a depth of
between 150 and 210 feet of water, configured in a one-mile by
five-mile grid. Electronic Power Research Institute, a
nonprofit research group, estimates that waves off the Oregon
coast could supply about 20% of the state’s total
electrical demand.
