Columbia Power Technologies, LLC

Columbia Power Technologies, Inc. was formed in 2005 by Greenlight Energy Resources, Inc. From the beginning, we’ve focused on delivering a floating, offshore solution that our customers want to buy; one that is survivable and cost-effective with the lowest environmental impact possible.

Columbia Power’s product development team is based in Corvallis, OR. The corporate office is located in Charlottesville, VA. Our team has over 125 years of successful management, operating and engineering experience in energy, early stage and Fortune 500 companies.

A key component of Columbia Power’s product development strategy is to partner with world-class engineering, design and manufacturing partners. This extended team of supply chain partners is second-to-none and, in their respective industries, represent some of the most experienced companies worldwide.

Our Investors

Our investors include the  Oregon Angel Fund, which is a highly structured, professionally managed, investor-driven angel fund. The fund provides accredited investors privileged access to the most promising startups and early-stage growth companies in Oregon and SW Washington.

Our Partners and Key Suppliers

US Federal Partners

• US Department of Energy
• US Department of Navy

International Design, Engineering and Manufacturing Partners and Tier 1 Suppliers

• Structural Engineering, Design and Manufacturing – Ershigs, Inc
• Engineering & Modeling – GL Garrad Hassan
• Regulatory – Ecology & Environment
• Mooring – Intermoor
• Certification – DNV Germanischer Lloyd

WHY WAVE ENERGY?

Clean, renewable energy is one of world’s top priorities. Not only can renewables reduce our dependence on carbon-based energy resources, they also help to insure our energy security and strengthen local economies.

Wave energy in particular is a highly desirable resource. Its practical worldwide potential is projected to be between 2 and 4 trillion kilowatt hours per year. The World Energy Council estimates that about 10% of worldwide electricity demand could be met by harvesting ocean energy, and the US Department of Energy has reported that the U.S. available wave energy resource has the potential to power over 100 million homes each year.

Offshore wave energy farms offer one of the best, new opportunities for clean, abundant, environmentally benign, and reliable utility-scale energy generation. Some of the attractive aspects of wave energy include:

Predictability

The supply of electricity from wave energy can be accurately forecast several days in advance. This allows utilities advance notice for sourcing plans to meet their short-term electricity scheduling needs.

Consistency

Ocean waves are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. An average coastline has around 4,000,000 waves a year coming ashore; all day and all night.

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY – MARINE HYDROKINETICS 101

Proximity

Wave energy is produced close to coastal populations — 50% of the world’s population lives near an ocean — and does not require significant additional build out of transmission.

Demand Matched

While wave energy is variable and seasonal, it is greatest in the winter months, especially in the temperate zones, when electrical demand also is highest.

Power Density

Solar photovoltaics (PV) typically generate power on the order of a hundred watts per square meter and wind one thousand watts per square meter of swept area, but wave energy is typically in the range of several tens of thousands of watts per meter of wave front. This allows wave energy plants to produce power using smaller footprints.

OUR SOLUTION

StingRAY-and-PTO-ModulesThe StingRAY – our utility-scale wave power system – represents the culmination of over 10 years of academic and corporate development. The system is based on a design philosophy that values simplicity, high efficiency and durability. In line with this philosophy, we’ve incorporated a number of unique design choices to help ensure we deliver a competitive cost of energy:

direct-drive means minimal moving parts

permanent magnet generators are an efficient and proven way to generate electricity

single-point mooring reduces our footprint and costs

sub-system modularity to allow for rapid and efficient maintenance and repair

composite structure delivers strength and long life, while avoiding corrosion

In our product development effort, we emphasize stepped-scale testing. In the past three years for our third-generation system, we’ve run our models for thousand of hours, tank-tested prototypes four times (including three and five unit arrays), and successfully completed thirteen month sea trials of an intermediate-scale prototype.

We’ve received two patents on our system and currently have four pending applications in the national stage entry process.