oceans

Ocean Power Technologies announced Wednesday it's close to getting a license to build a wave energy plant off the coast of Oregon.

The New Jersey-based company has signed a settlement agreement that includes over 11 government agencies, and several private companies, to develop a 1.5-megawatt wave energy station.

When completed the plant will consist of 10 PowerBuoys that could generate enough electricity to power 1,000 homes annually, according to Ocean Power.

Ocean Power's PowerBuoys resemble ordinary ocean buoys from the surface, but hold a piston-like device inside that moves up and down with the natural jostle of ocean waves. The electricity generated by the movement is then sent to shore via underwater transmission cables. The buoys also contain onboard sensors and communication tools that allow the buoy to be monitored and adjusted to maximize its effect depending on the changing behavior of the ocean waves.

Oregon Iron Works is already constructing the buoys for the Oregon project, even though Ocean Power is still waiting to be granted its license with the Federal Energy Regulation Commission to connect to the grid, the company said in a statement.

Ocean Power participated in studies and investigations in conjunction with local government agencies to evaluate whether the project would have an effect on local marine life or the Oregon crabbing and fishing industries, among other concerns. As part of the settlement agreement, Ocean Power will also participate in a management plan to continually evaluate the project's impact on the local environment and fishing industry. … Read more

Go ahead, make your "Waterworld" jokes. BP has placed an order to purchase machines to separate spilled oil and Gulf of Mexico water from Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company backed by actor and environmentalist Kevin Costner, according to reports.

Ocean Therapy Solutions has been testing the centrifugal oil-water separator but has not yet received payment from BP, which is under growing pressure to stem the massive flow of oil from the remains of the Deepwater Horizon rig and clean up the spill.

"Kevin has spent 15 years and $24 million of his own money on this technology, … Read more

After a month and a half at sea, British ocean rower and environmental campaigner Roz Savage made landfall Friday in Papua New Guinea, completing her three-stage trip and becoming the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.

"It's still sinking in that I've actually done it," Savage, 42, said in an e-mail Friday.

She set off in her 23-foot boat from Tarawa in mid-April on the final leg of her Pacific voyage. In total, she spent about 250 days alone at sea, rowing more than 8,000 miles and taking an estimated 2.5 … Read more

Google Earth continues to set the mapping paradigm. Accessible enough for casual users, Google has added features that make it a necessity for those whose topographic desires are more serious. In addition to Earth cartography, you can also check out Google Ocean, historical Earth maps, and the surface of one of our closest neighbors, Mars.

The oceanic maps provide the capability to plunge to the floor of the sea, view exclusive content from the BBC and National Geographic, and explore shipwrecks like the Titanic in 3D. Exploring the Martian surface is limited to data provided from NASA, but that's … Read more

The U.S. Navy has completed testing on a new automated ship crane that can safely perform ship-to-ship cargo transfer while at sea and compensate for surging waves, eliminating the need for a secure deep-water port in emergency or combat situations.

The Large Vessel Interface Lift On/Lift Off (LVI Lo/Lo) Crane can also facilitate standard supply transfer to ships in choppy seas. Developed by the Sea Warfare and Weapons Department in the Office of Naval Research along with Oceaneering International, the crane has sensors and cameras as well as motion-sensing algorithms that let it automatically shift with the … Read more

The waters of the Gulf of Mexico will see a novel offshore platform later this year, one that will use wave power to desalinate water.

Independent Natural Resources, which makes the Seadog water pump, on Wednesday said that it has received a permit for a wave power generation facility off the coast of Freeport, Texas. The company says it's the first to receive a "section 10 permit" from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to operate a wave generator in the U.S.

The facility, which the company hopes to put in the water by the … Read more

General Motors is stepping up efforts to increase green innovations by filing hundreds of patents last year; including patents for the use of new materials and alloys.

"The move toward electrification is requiring us to reinvent the DNA of the automobile, requiring massive amounts of innovation," said Alan Taub, vice president of GM Global research and Development said in a news release. "There's almost no component on the vehicle that is not being reinvented. As a result, our green patent portfolio is helping us achieve world-class technological breakthroughs in the energy and environmental space."

GM'… Read more

On January 23, 1960, two men, diving in a small deep-sea submersible, reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, a spot about 200 miles southwest of Guam that, at 35,800 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, is the deepest point on Earth.

It was the first time humans had gone that deep, and when Navy Lt. Don Walsh and his co-pilot, Jacques Piccard, took the bathyscaphe Trieste all the way down, they surely must have felt like pioneers, the first of many who would make their way there.

On Thursday, at a gala event at the Press … Read more

Researchers say they've taken underwater robotics to the next level, successfully running an autonomous robotic vehicle off the Hawaiian Islands for more than three months, powered only by energy harnessed from changes in sea temperatures.

The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging vehicle (or Solo-Trec, for short) is the product of a years-long joint research project by NASA, the U.S. Navy, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the University of California at San Diego. The group said Monday that Solo-Trec is the first such vehicle to be powered entirely by the ocean's thermal energy.

Solo-Trec works by … Read more