Green Options

Somewhere in the U.S. there is a justice of the peace who still refuses to perform inter-racial marriages, but Principle Power, Inc. has no such backward looking qualms when it comes marrying two different forms of sustainable energy.  Last week the company won a $750,000 development grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to adapt its patented WindFloat platform to bring wave energy generating capability on board, along with the wind turbines for which it was originally designed.

Of particular interest to DOE is WindFloat’s innovative three-corner design, which stabilizes the platform against turbulence and enables it to be deployed in deep water where winds are more favorable to energy generation.  In addition to its obvious use in the civilian world, the marriage of wind and wave power may also prove fruitful for its application to the U.S. military’s need for non-petroleum energy sources at remote bases.

Principle Power got some hard-won validation for its floating offshore wind-turbine platforms this week when it signed a deal with European utility Energias de Portugal, the world’s fourth-largest wind producer. The agreement calls for the two companies to develop a three-part project off the coast of Portugal.

The news doesn’t come as much of surprise, as Seattle-based Principle Power previously had told me it was partnering with EDP. But the fact that the utility has selected Principle Power’s WindFloat platforms — and has decided to go forward with the project — is a win for the startup. It’s also evidence that utilities are continuing to pursue offshore-wind technology in spite of the recession (read more about offshore wind here, here and here). “Offshore wind is one of our key priorities,” EDP CEP Antonio Mexia said in the announcement.