Date: Jan 23, 2014 Author: Emily Parkhurst Source: bizjournals (
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Reverse magnetostriction has been around since the mid-1800s, but you'd be forgiven if you've never heard of it. You have likely heard it, though. Magnetostriction is responsible for the buzzing sound you hear when you're near power station transformers. Basically, it's what happens when metal alloys like iron change shape in a changing magnetic field.
Now, a small Seattle startup has figured out a way to apply reverse magnetostriction to cheap iron-based metal alloys to generate electricity. The process is driven by the energy from ocean waves. And the devices have the added benefit of not having moving parts.
Oscilla Power, an eight-person operation with a small space on Lake Union, has spent the last four years demonstrating that its concept, which would be attached to ocean buoys, would be a cost-effective way to generate energy from waves.
"It's been four years, but we only started with an idea. I'm pretty proud of being able to go from idea to core enabling technology in a matter of four years," said Rahul Shendure, co-founder and CEO of Oscilla Power.
Shendure worked closely with metallurgist Balky Nair to develop and test the technology, and now the company is about to deploy a demonstration buoy at a test site on the New Hampshire coast.
In June, Oscilla will deploy its 4-meter by 4-meter buoy in New Hampshire, which should generate about 50 watts of power -- not much, but enough to demonstrate that the concept works.
"Then it will be about scaling up the systems," Shendure said. "Our intention is to deploy a commercially relevant scale system."
The system is aimed at utility-size projects, Shendure said, and the idea is to prove it can compete with other green energy systems like solar and wind power in both power generation and cost effectiveness.
Conventional wave power generation systems are expensive, generally because they have moving parts that must be replaced frequently thanks to the corrosive environment at sea. Oscilla Power's system would not have any moving parts, instead relying on reverse magnetism to generate power.
"We can get it down to 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour with no subsidies," Shendure said.
That's around the same as the cost-per kilowatt hour of wind power.
Unlike many clean tech companies, Oscilla Power has managed to convince some investors that it can reach an exit -- likely a sale of the technology to a large company like Siemens or General Electric. The company has raised $1.7 million and plans to do another funding round at the end of this year.
The next round will finance a full-scale demonstration project the team plans to build in Oregon where the waves are larger than in New Hampshire (NH has a special pre-approved testing site, making the permitting process for test projects incredibly simple).
"Our goal is to give the engineers and business development folks at established power generation companies high confidence that large scale systems can deliver that cost structure," Shendure said.
In addition to financing, the company has received about $3.5 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which have helped pay for the New Hampshire test.
Oscilla Power is working closely with the University of Washington and the University of New Hampshire on the project and will be doing a "splash test" in Lake Union this spring.
Additionally, Shendure is meeting with people in Europe and Japan, where the regulatory environment for testing wave power is easier to maneuver.
The technology has applications beyond a large array for a utility, though. NOAA could use it to power weather sensors in buoys deployed in the middle of the ocean, and oil and gas companies could use it in their own monitoring systems.
