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13 Oct 09. Lockheed Martin and Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (OPT) (Nasdaq: OPTT and London Stock Exchange AIM: OPT) have signed a commercial engineering services agreement to develop OPT’s wave energy systems for use in future utility-scale power generation projects. Under the agreement, Lockheed Martin will provide its expertise in systems integration, lean manufacturing, and test and optimization analysis to enhance OPT’s innovative PowerBuoy. wave power generation technology to utility-scale. This critical step will allow the two companies to pursue future utility-scale power generation projects in North America. The companies agreed to collaborate on such projects in a letter of intent signed in January 2009.OPT’s proven PowerBuoy technology uses “smart” buoys, based on integrated patented hydrodynamics, electronics, energy conversion and computer control systems, to capture and convert energy from the natural rising and falling of waves into low-cost, clean electricity. The generated power is transferred ashore via an underwater power transmission cable. A future 10-Megawatt utility power station comprised of floating PowerBuoy systems would occupy approximately 30 acres (0.125 square kilometers) of ocean space. Such a plant would generate electricity for approximately 4,000 homes.
21 Oct 09. In a landmark contract, Sweden’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has commissioned the National Defense Research Agency (NDRA) to undertake a 12-month study to micro-examine existing and imminent links among climate change, national defense readiness and global security. The NDRA is tasked with presenting recommendations on how Sweden should adjust
its national security and defense strategies to counter “new and real threats,” such as possible security tensions that may emerge from inter-nation conflicts relating to more aggressive development of natural resources by major powers in the Arctic region. Sweden plans to use the NDRA’s research to build new systems that will provide improved early warning and allow for better preplanning, for military crisis management operations and national defense readiness. The NDRA report will enable the Swedish government to better anticipate and prepare for potential climate-based “challenges in the future,” the minister said. The relationship between climate change and security was highlighted in a special report presented to the European Council of Ministers in March 2008. Sweden, during the current term of its rotating six-month EU presidency, which ends on Dec. 31, plans to present an updated report on climate change and security to the council in November.