The Texas General Land Office has granted the first-ever state offshore wave-energy lease to Texas-based Renew Blue Inc (RBI), who will use ocean water and waves to produce 3,000 gal/day (11,350 L/d) of bottled desalinated water.
This is claimed to be the first 100% fossil-fuel-free bottled water.
RBI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Independent Natural Resources Inc, is the first licensing entity of the Seadog® Pump, a technology that harnesses wave-power to generate electricity. RBI will bottle and distribute the freshly desalinated water under the brand Renew Blue™.
RBI will place an offshore modular platform about one mile (1,500 m) off the coast of Freeport, Texas, in roughly 25 ft (8 m) of water in the fourth quarter of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010. The platform is currently being manufactured outside of Houston.
The platform will store up to 30,000 gallons in a sealed, stainless steel tank before the water is transported to the bottling plant. The Seadog pump system claims significant cost savings and minimal environmental impact compared with use of power generated by fossil fuels. Further environmental benefits accrue from the manner in which reject brine is disbursed.
Preliminary estimates based on results from the sea trial suggest that a one-square-mile field of Seadog pumps could generate 30-1,500 MW electricity. The amount of electricity generated is dependent on how large the waves are in any given area of the world.