Emerging Clean Energy Technology

Vigor has been actively engaged in building wave and tidal energy devices and their components for the past ten years. More recently we’ve added work in offshore wind. Our wave energy conversion projects include WET-NZ device for Northwest Energy Innovations, an Ocean Power Technologies prototype and a Finivara device. Vigor is also a team partner with Principle Power for the construction of its offshore floating wind turbine platform. Designed for deep water operation, this innovative device allows for placement away from the shoreline where winds are optimal for power generation.

Our most recent featured project shown in the timelapse video below is the Ocean Energy wave energy conversion device. The 826-ton “OE Buoy” measures 125 x 59 feet with a draft of 31 feet and has a potential rated capacity of up to 1.25 MW in electrical power production. Each deployed commercial device could reduce CO2 emissions by over 3,600 tons annually, which for a utility-scale wave farm of 100 MW could amount to over 180,000 tons of CO2 in a full year. Ocean Energy estimates that a 100 MW wave farm could power up to 18,750 American homes.

OE Buoy will be tested at the US Navy Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) in Kanehoe Bay, Hawaii. This project was funded by the US Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.