Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Funding looking closer for ocean generation in American Samoa and Guam

Posted at 18:27 on 28 June, 2009 UTC

American Samoa’s Territorial Energy Office or TEO has made headway in attracting potential investors for what it believes will be the territory’s answer to rising fuel costs, wave power.

The acting of director TEO says Guam and American Samoa have been identified as having the most potential for Ocean thermal energy conversion.

The energy conversion generates electricity from waves and uses the temperature difference that exists between deep and shallow waters to run a heat engine.

Mauigoa Reupena Tagaloa says Guam is already getting federal funding to the tune of 1.5 billion US dollars for an OTEC plant to help meet the increased demand for power with the military expansion.

He says preliminary estimates for an OTEC plant in the Territory is half a billion dollars.

Mauigoa says the savings that the territory will make from its fuel bill when it coverts to OTEC power will be much more than the amount it will spend on the project.