$3 million wave power project for Grand Bahama

By the Freeport News

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 11:42

A $3 million wave energy project is being eyed for Grand Bahama with successful testing in the second quarter of 2011 to usher in more than 100 jobs attached to a proposed manufacturing plant that will export throughout the region. Dallas-based Neptune Wave Power is now looking to finalize agreements over the next several months, as it prepares to put an energy generating buoy offshore, The Freeport News confirmed. "We are looking to finalize agreement with the Government, Grand Bahama Power Company (GBPC) and the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA)," said president Scott Albury. It'll be the first of many steps to change energy usage throughout the country and at the same time bolster Grand Bahama's economy as the launch centre for this project. "We have one (letters of intent) in place and what we're trying to do now is basically firm up those agreements," added Albury. "We're hoping to get them done as soon as possible because we're hoping to deploy the first buoy for testing by the second quarter of next year. "We've been working with the Grand Bahama Power Com-pany and we've had discussions with Environment Minister Earl Deveaux, the Minister of State for Environment Phenton Neymour and also Phillip Weech, director of BEST Commission." The talks centred on placing a wave energy conversion device in the form of a buoy into waters off the island and run tests to see how well that one device supplies energy to the grid. The energy created from the wave currents will then be fed into the Power Company's grid and analyzed from that point on. "It is our hope that once we get through the development phase, one bouy should be able to provide enough energy to power about 120 homes," said Albury. Depending on the success of this first try out, an array of buoys will be deployed in the waters off the island and eventually taken to other islands in The Bahamas to provide an alternate supply of energy. click here for more