Crest of a wave

Friday's Interview:Two weeks ago, a company owned by three Corkmen launched something that looked like the incomplete hull of a medium-sized trawler in Galway Bay - and left it there.

It was the latest stage in a process that could lead to one of the first viable commercial systems in western Europe for converting wave power to electricity.

The company, Cobh, Co Cork-based OceanEnergy, has been working on the project for six years with the help of the Marine Institute, the Hydraulic Marine Research Centre in University College Cork (UCC) and Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI).

Its three principals, Michael Whelan, John McCarthy and John Keating, have put about €1 million of their own resources into the project. So it's not surprising that they regarded the launch as something of a red letter day.

Their equipment began producing electricity from the waves that pass through it on the way to hitting the coast close to Spiddal. It's one of just three devices in the world converting wave power to electricity.

The location is a specially designated test bed for this type of technology. Keating says the plan is to leave it there for the winter to establish that it can "survive the harsh sea conditions" and continue to produce electricity consistently in a variety of conditions. The next stage, he explains, is to produce a commercial prototype early next year that will provide electricity to the national grid.

Keating estimates that the prototype will require a further investment of between €4 million and €5 million. If that works, OceanEnergy believes it can begin full commercial production in early 2009. And the men behind it want as much as possible of the production, employment and benefits to stay in Ireland. "We're an Irish company," Keating says.

For the moment, OceanEnergy is the three men. They are an unlikely combination of Whelan, a sea salvage expert, who founded and ran Celtic Salvage; McCarthy, an accountant with a lot of experience in alternative energy; and Keating, who was originally a banker.

Like his colleagues, he's from Cork. He worked for First Active in Dublin for 10 years, but returned home at the turn of the decade and got into property development.

An interest in issues such as energy and global warming pushed him into his current role. He explains that because of our location, waves could be a solution to some of our energy problems, not to mention those of many other countries.

The Marine Institute agrees and estimates that up to 800 mega watts (MW) of electricity - the equivalent of two power stations - could be generated from the sea in the medium term. That's 15 per cent of the 5,035MW of power used by the Republic during a record peak demand period last December, from a fuel that is emission-free and costs nothing.

All this depends on somebody finding a means of converting wave power to electricity that can be sold to homes and businesses. The global energy industry has been working hard on finding this solution.

Earlier this year, multi-national giant Chevron recruited another Irish company, Wavebob, as one of its research partners in this area.

A quick search of the internet will throw up lots of examples of wave-energy technology, but most of it hasn't moved past being a colourful diagram on the web, and they nearly all look complicated.

Conversely, Ocean Energy's system is based on a simple principle. It's a partly submerged L-shaped chamber with a turbine attached at right angles above the water line. As the wave advances, water fills the chamber and pushes the air out, driving the turbine and generating power. As the wave retreats, the chamber empties, creating a vacuum which sucks the air back in, driving the turbine and generating power.

"It's very simple, very straightforward, and it has only one moving part," Keating explains. This means it's potentially cheap to build and easy to maintain.

Keating says that Ocean Energy tested the durability of the basic hull, minus the turbine, last winter. Within days of its launch in December, it survived an 8.2m wave, which is big enough to give the average two-storey home a soaking from roof to ground floor, while knocking a large hole in it.

During that storm, the average wave was four metres. "She brushed all that off," he says. "The only repairs she needed when we brought her back in a few weeks ago was a clean down to remove the barnacles."

Last winter was particularly stormy and provided the first real acid test of its product. The success of what Keating calls the "survivability" test increased the company's confidence that it was on the right path.

Ocean Energy's device has so far avoided all potential pitfalls. It began life as a model small enough to fit into a tank at the research centre in UCC. As it got bigger, Keating says it would have been normal to encounter inconsistencies and unexpected problems. "But that didn't happen - she's been completely predictable all the way up." The company is about to make the jump from a 28-tonne test model to a 650-tonne commercial prototype, so is it likely to encounter a few surprises at that stage?

"That argument has been made about our original device and how that would measure up against our 28-tonne device," Keating says. "But our experience has supported our belief that we can, with some certainty, predict its behaviour as we move into the production of the full-scale prototype. If some changes were going to occur, we'd know about them."

So with that level of confidence, and the possibility of a real breakthrough just months away, how come the Chevrons of this world haven't come shopping around?

Keating says Ocean Energy has rebuffed a number of approaches as its directors felt the time was not right to get anyone other than the development partners involved. But ultimately it will take on other shareholders as it develops.

However, he stresses that the three men are determined that a potentially valuable industry will not be whisked out of this country.

"This is an Irish operation and we want to create Irish wealth and Irish jobs from this," he says. "This could be a world leader in its technology."

ON THE RECORD

Age:36

Family:married to Elaine with two children aged 4 and 6 months

Lives:Carrigaline, Co Cork

Position:Principal, OceanEnergy

Something you might expect:Keating is interested in bridging the gap between renewable energy ideas and commercial potential. He is a member of the Marine Institute-funded Blue Power Initiative Industry Forum.

Something that might surprise:He is a director of the Firestone Group, Irish property development specialists involved recently in the record price purchase of Portlaoise GAA club lands and the multi-million residential development at the Ursuline Convent in Cork city.

Hobbies:Golf (handicap 1), reading.