Big wave, wind generators proposed for Penguin Bank, Kaiwi Channel

A Seattle company has proposed a series of wave and wind energy generators in and south of the Molokai -to-O'ahu Kaiwi Channel.The wave generators would sit on the broad shallows called Penguin Bank, which extend into the Kaiwi Channel and to the southwest of western Molokai. It is an area with strong tidal flow. There are no images of what the units would look like in the application to date.
Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company has filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission an application for permits for its Hawaii Ocean Energy Project. It is one of several permit requests Grays Harbor has filed, for similar projects in New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, New York, and Rhode Island. All were filed on the same day, October 22, 2008.Life of the Land has filed an application to intervene in the permitting.

noting that “this is the first application for a large scale ocean energy system in Hawai'i and will establish policy and set the tone for this and future ocean energy proposals.”Grays Harbor proposes 100 wave energy conversion structures at maximum capacity of one megawatt each, for a total maximum production of 100 megawatts. That's the goal, but for now, the firm wants a pilot project to install just two of the 1-megawatt generators for testing.

It also says that wind generators could be built atop the wave energy structures.The firm says in its application that the project would create utility-scale renewable energy from offshore wave energy, would enable testing of new wave energy technologies, would create jobs and would improve fishing “because the supporting platforms become artificial reefs.”Of Penguin Bank, the company says this: