Entrepreneur pushes ocean energy scheme (Washington, D.C.)

With BP’s oil ships (and oiled animals) occupying virtually every television screen in America, one local entrepreneur has an entirely different idea for pulling energy out of the world’s oceans.

Brian Cunningham, a spry 74-year-old former NASA physicist, was an early pioneer in optical character recognition technology. Although he retired after selling his company, Computer Entry Systems Inc., in 1989, he now works on various projects from his home in Potomac. One of those projects is Ocean Energy Systems Inc., a “humanitarian project with a venture capital return.”

The company hopes to build a barge-like contraption that will float in rough waters, with moveable wings that generate hydraulic energy to feed into nearby power grids via underwater cables, Cunningham told InnerLoop this week. (Want to see a fascinating animation of the technology? Go to www.oceanenergysys.com and click on technology.)

“The power of waves is enormous, but we don’t know how to use it,” Cunningham says. “There are 10 trillion watts out there.”

The barge can also desalinate water to help sate parched populations in third-world countries. “Do you know how many people die every minute from lack of drinking water?” Cunningham asked. “Seven. That’s more than 3 million people a year.”

Read the rest of the story in the Washington Business Journal.