OceanBased plans hundreds of megawatts of marine energy off Florida coast

OceanBased Perpetual Energy LLC hopes to install hundreds of megawatts of power generating capacity off the southeast coast of Florida as part of what it believes would be the world’s largest commercial ocean current energy project.

OceanBased said in a statement today that it will team up with Florida Atlantic University’s Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center (SNMREC) to develop the said project. The two parties have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for that purpose.

The plan is to start with verifying the compatibility between generation and subsea transmission equipment and then install up to 1 MW of shore-connected capacity. In as few as five years, that capacity can increase to 20 MW, according to the company.

The project will be developed in the Gulf Stream, which, according to estimates by the US Department of Energy, can generate up to 45 TWh of electricity per year for Florida.

SNMREC is one of three energy department-designated centres that assist companies in developing marine renewables. It plans to provide OceanBased with technical, strategic and regulatory support.

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