Entrepreneur and part-time Keats Island resident Charles Haynes is getting ready to start testing on the Neptune 3 power generator.
The machine, developed over the last five years, uses wave motion to generate electricity.
Haynes told Coast Reporter he started working on the idea after searching for alternative power systems for his home on Keats and discovering there was nothing commercially available to generate power from ocean waves.
Neptune 3 is being set up in the foreshore lease he holds in the area to the east of West Beach, and all the permits are in place. During the testing, which is expected to last around five months, Neptune 3 will supply power to the home and the BC Hydro grid under the utilities net metering program. It’s the same arrangement many people with solar or wind systems are already taking advantage of.
Haynes said he hopes to generate about 6 kW/hr of electricity with Neptune 3. He explained that Georgia Strait isn’t ideal for wave-generated electricity on a large scale, but the area off the south end of Keats has enough consistent wave action for a test of Neptune 3’s technology and design.
Haynes said his Keats Island neighbours have been watching the project unfold with interest.
“We’ve been doing this for five years, and we’ve been talking it up, and many of the people on Keats have helped build it,” he said.
About 20 people turned up for an information session earlier this summer. According to Haynes, the most common questions were about the size and how long it would be in place, as well as how the power would be transmitted back to shore.
Neptune 3 is about 24 by 24 feet (seven by seven metres) with a geodesic dome structure that’s nine feet tall (three metres) and 18 feet in diameter (5.5 metres).
Hayne’s self-financed company, Mermaid Power, is hoping to test a larger model off the west coast of Vancouver Island as it looks toward taking a product to market some time down the road.
Haynes said wave conditions similar to those in places like Tofino are the most practical for generating electricity, but Mermaid will have to prove its design can withstand the stormy conditions.
“The whole point of the wave machine is you put it where the storms are,” he said. “So if I can prove my technology can survive the storm, there are many places in the world which are completely dependent on diesel and fossil fuels for their energy – like small islands – and I think the wave machine would make a good supplement to their existing grid.”
