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The announcement comes just a few days after the company received permission to deploy and test AcquaBuOY off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, some 300 miles from the Oregon installation.

Denis Letourneau, Finavera Renewables' VP Engineering said:
"Today is an exciting day as it marks the transition from construction to deployment. Over the last two and a half months, our engineers and fabricators have put in long hours to ensure this cutting edge technology was built to exacting specifications. We have completed various systems tests on the device, and the AquaBuOY 2.0 wave energy converter is now ready for ocean testing."

Once deployed 2 miles off the coast of Newport, Finavera Renewables will monitor the output of the hose pump technology and other components to determine the device's potential for electricity generation.

All onboard diagnostic equipment will be powered by the device itself, with solar panels, and small wind turbines installed on the device providing secondary electricity generation. Information will be streamed live to the Company via wireless and satellite technology in order to gather and analyae the data.

Jason Bak, Finavera Renewables CEO, said:
"The construction of the AquaBuOY 2.0 illustrates our ability to manage a complicated design programme for a unique new technology. Our next step is to deploy the device and validate our cost and output projections. That testing will lead to the development of our next generation wave energy converter, as our goal is to optimise our technology for cost effective electricity generation from the energy in the ocean. The completion of construction and imminent deployment bring us closer to that goal."

How it works
The AquaBuOY looks like any buoy from the surface and is designed to ride with the waves' ebbs and flows.  This design means that will survive rough seas and storms.  Electricity is generated by the motion of the waves using a piston like action through an acceleration tube.

The acceleration tube is a vertical, hollow cylinder rigidly mounted under the body of the buoy. The tube is open in both ends so seawater can pass unimpeded back and forth, forcing the piston to move, and in turn extend or compress the hose pumps. Positioned at the midpoint of the acceleration tube is the piston, a broad, neutrally buoyant disk. When the buoy is at rest, the piston is held at the midpoint by the balanced tension of two hose pumps that are attached to opposite sides of the piston and extend to the top and bottom of the acceleration tube.

The Future
Speaking about the future for AquaBuOY, Jason Bak said:
"We're planning for the installation of a multi-device array in 2010 and soon thereafter, deployment of many more devices, on the first linear steps of what we anticipate will be an exponential curve. This first phase of our strategy will be in the water very soon. Our overall goal in wave energy however has always been the same: to capture the energy of the ocean in a device that is economically viable, thereby generating significant value not only for shareholders, but for all of the world."