William Staby, the CEO, addressed the city's Energy Advisory Committee last week.
"They are seeking a place where they can do this, and from the standpoint of locations, the North Shore is one of the best places," said Cliff Goudey, a member of the committee and chairman of the Waterfront Trust.
Local communities "would get a pretty good assessment of the wave-energy potential of the shore," Goudey said.
"That would be the payback for us," he said. "Newburyport could get branded as an environmentally friendly community, which could help the economic development."
Resolute Marine Energy, a start-up company, is developing technology that uses a floating buoy on the surface of the ocean that follows the up-and-down wave action.
"That up and down motion is converted into electricity," Staby said.
He said the technology works much like that of a popular flashlight now on the market that is shaken to generate power.
"It is the same thing: You are moving magnets inside of a coil of wires and therefore generating electricity flow," Staby said.
He said the technology could have two major roles: providing electricity in small amounts to isolated and autonomous ocean projects; and creating "wave farms" with many buoys that could connect to a larger electricity grid and provide electricity for cities and towns.
For now, Staby said his company is looking for a place to test the product, and that is where Newburyport comes in.
He said California, Washington and Oregon already have test sites, but no talks he knows of have started on the East Coast, putting Newburyport in a unique position to lead the way.
"That is something that is much needed in our industry; that is, having a place to come along and find a community that is amenable to letting us test our stuff," Staby said. "Other companies will probably want to come along and test their products as well. And have some kind of effect on the local economy."
For example, he said there is other burgeoning energy technology that uses river currents to power a wind turbine-like device that generates electricity. Staby said at last week's meeting that city residents and leaders — not he — brought up making the city a hub of such technology testing.
"(This technology) is something that is really quite needed if we, as a country, are serious about providing a variety of alternative energy," he said.
Jim Stiles, the vice chairman of the Energy Advisory Committee who has a background in environmental interests, said while reading and studying alternative energy, he's noticed that most of the development is on the West Coast, specifically in Oregon.
"I personally would be very excited to see a testing facility located here," Stiles said. "The hope would be that Newburyport might prove suitable for the East Coast."
He also said a testing site exists off the Orkney Islands in Scotland and has provided a huge boost for the local economy. Stiles said that could also happen in Newburyport to a smaller degree.
"Equally important would be bringing interesting, intelligent people in to town," Stiles said. "That is always a good thing."
A test of one of the buoys would last just a few weeks and involve just one of the about-6-foot-wide buoys, which stick about 6 to 12 inches out of the water, Stiles said. He said those buoys come with light and radar reflectors to warn of their whereabouts.
Goudey said what Staby needs is the support of the city, either in the form of a letter from its leaders — the Energy Advisory Committee, the City Council or the mayor — so that "in a sense, he can take that to the bank" — in other words, use the city's interest to gain leverage to acquire funding.
"I don't see a down side to it," Goudey said. "The main thing is the environmental branding the city can get from supporting these kinds of things."
Source: newburyportnews.com
Ocean Energy News 
