Gujarat government commits $5M to new wave power plant

Wave power plant developer and engineering company SDE Energy said today its subsidiary signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government to build a 5 megawatt power plant that harnesses energy from ocean waves.

The agreement, between Tel Aviv, Israel-based SDE’s subsidiary, Om Sai Mantra Powergen, and the government’s energy and petrochemicals department, aims to commercialize the $5 million plant by December 2010, SDE International Marketing Manager Inna Braverman told the Cleantech Group. 

The government has also authorized a $700 million budget for the next phase—a 100 MW sea wave power plant to be built by SDE.

Government authorities plans to facilitate any needed regulatory requirements as well as helping the company take advantage of applicable incentives for the first plant.

In 2007, Indian national electric company PCT India committed to purchasing power from the plant on a long-term basis, subject to a power purchase agreement.

Braverman said SDE has secured an agreement with an undisclosed Israeli bank, which has agreed to finance all of SDE's projects, once power purchase agreements are secured.

SDE claims its patented and patent-pending technology that harnesses and stores energy from ocean waves using a hydraulic method is highly efficient, inexpensive and weatherproof.

"What's unique about the technology is that only 10 percent is in the water. Ninety percent is on the shore like a regular power station, and the system produces electricity with every movement of the system, when the waves go up and go down," she said. 

The company has built eight models financed by the Israeli government, with the most recent one having the capacity to generate 40 kilowatts per hour. The first commercial model was deployed about a year ago in the port of Jaffa, located south of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea.

The company said costs start at $650,000 to erect a 1 MW sea wave power plant, while comparable stations cost $3 million for solar, $1.5 million with coal, $1.5 million using wind and $900,000 from natural gas. Braverman said SDE's system is also cheaper than other technologies in terms of price per kilowatt, at $0.02 per kilowatt.

Last year, SDE signed a 25-year agreement with an undisclosed African country to build wave energy projects with a total capacity of 100 MW. The cost is estimated at $100 million (see Israel's SDE plans 100MW of wave energy for Africa).

Another startup developing similar technology to SDE is Boston, Mass.-based Resolute Marine Energy, which has two products, known as wave energy converters, which take energy from the waves and convert them into electricity, compressed air or compressed seawater (see Startup squeezing energy from waves, no grid required).

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Metabolix, ADM to open new bioplastics factory
• Rockwool nears construction on Indian insulation factory

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed