Lockheed Martin will provide design, manufacturing, system integration and supply chain management expertise to enhance OPT's PowerBuoy technology. This builds on previous work conducted by Lockheed Martin and OPT.
The collaboration follows a $2.4 million contract awarded by the US Department of Energy to OPT as part of US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu's initiatives announced in September 2010 to promote the development of renewable marine energy.
"OPT's engineering and innovation efforts for the utility market are focused on improving power conversion efficiency, reliability, manufacturability and lowering the costs of marine operations and maintenance," said Charles F. Dunleavy, Chief Executive Officer of the company. "We will be rolling out the PB150 PowerBuoy product, our latest utility market offering, over the next few years and will also leverage this experience for the next generation of the PowerBuoy, our 500kW device that is currently under development. Lockheed Martin's reputation and track record in manufacturing technology and its focus on renewable energy technologies will greatly assist us in this endeavor. With the Department of Energy's continued support and Lockheed Martin's expertise, the commercialization of our technologies to harness wave power continues to make steady progress."
Construction of the Oregon PB150 PowerBuoy's steel structure has been completed, and testing of the advanced power take-off and control system is in process at OPT's production facility in a test environment simulating the varying wave conditions that exist off the Oregon coast. Assembly, systems integration, and land testing of the PowerBuoy is planned to occur over the next several months. It is intended to be the first of a proposed 10-buoy wave power station with a peak generating capacity of 1.5 MW, equivalent to the power needs of about 1,500 homes.
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