The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

By Don C. Brunell

Shipyard workers in Portland are building the first commercial-scale wave energy buoy which, if it works, could be part of a system providing electricity to communities along our nation’s coastline.

Vigor’s shipyard has a $6.5 million contract to construct an 826-ton buoy which can generate 1.25 MW (megawatts) of electricity. Its principle selling point is it generates electricity without CO2 or other greenhouse gas emissions.

Vigor estimates each buoy would offset 3,000 tons of carbon releases a year and, if tied together with 100 similar generating platforms, could...