Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has been awarded a contract to develop a fiber optic mooring line from the United States Navy valued at $125,000.
The contract has an additional three options totaling $100,000 for a total potential contract value of $225,000.
Under this contract, OPT will immediately begin the development of a buoy mooring system which incorporates fiber optics for the transmission of subsea sensor data to airplanes, ships, and satellites.
OPT will execute the work under its Innovation & Support Services line.
The fiber optic mooring concepts developed under this contract may be incorporated into OPT’s PowerBuoy and Subsea Battery Module product lines, the company noted.
George Kirby , CEO of Ocean Power Technologies, said, “We’re very excited for this Phase I award by the U.S. Navy to develop a fiber optic mooring line which may be used for both defense and commercial applications. We believe that this new contract award further validates our technical expertise and experience with ocean energy systems and could also lead to additional future contract awards where we might utilize OPT technologies which are already in advanced stages of development. To date, OPT has earned 28 U.S. Government awards, including eight Phase I awards, which led to five Phase II efforts and 15 Phase III efforts, all related to marine systems and applications. We welcome the opportunity that this new contract brings, and this award now allows us to immediately bid on a Phase II contract.”
“ OPT has a long work history on Department of Defense projects,” added Kirby. “Our most recent government effort has been around advancing our anchorless PowerBuoy design, and we’re nearing the prototype stage. The anchorless PowerBuoy design is very encouraging to our customers due to its innovative and patented approach to power generation and also the need for a quick-deploy solution throughout markets such as defense and offshore oil and gas.”