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Age of Aquarius energy

The dawning of a blue power generation? Blue Energy Inc. Canada will be presenting a two-hour technology briefing on it new ocean power system at Millennium Place on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 7:30 p.m. Blue Energy Inc.

The dawning of a blue power generation?

Blue Energy Inc. Canada will be presenting a two-hour technology briefing on it new ocean power system at Millennium Place on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Blue Energy Inc. is a corporation that designs and engineers infrastructure to create power from the kinetic energy of the ocean’s tides.

"Think of blue energy as an underwater windmill, then think of moving current as a heavy, hurricane-like wind," said Blue Energy CEO Martin Burger.

The seminar will be directed at Whistler investors.

"Smart investors will get behind high density renewable resources that will fill the gap in the oil peak," said Burger.

"The status quo (of current power production) is sitting there like a giant lubricated ice sheet waiting to crack and we anticipate it will occur in the next few years," he said.

Burger said that peaking oil prices and the Kyoto Accord are just a couple of convergent market drivers that will further change the energy sector and create a space for blue energy to fill.

"It’s a sector that has been traditionally slow to change, due the fact some people don’t want it to change," he said.

"The public live with the myth that the inventors haven’t been doing their job, that the technology doesn’t exist.

"The truth is that the technology has been developed but we haven’t been able to penetrate the market because of the various hidden market barriers and vested interest gridlock."

Burger said that B.C. has 50,000 megawatts of tidal resources and that 50 per cent more of the world’s energy needs can be cheaply derived from the world’s ocean reserves.

"We have a very hydrodynamic ocean, with some five times B.C. Hydro’s whole grid worth of power and we don’t have a single megawatt of ocean power in place, it’s ridiculous," he said.

Burger disagrees with the move by B.C. Hydro to give natural gas the highest priority as an energy source because Canada is already struggling with gas emission reduction commitments after signing the Kyoto accord.

"Gas will only further exacerbate our emissions and the problem with making a significant shift to gas is the potential for gas prices to spike," he said.

"Not only is it a commitment to a source that is further polluting when we should be moving to a source that is non-polluting, we risk suffering extraordinary high prices for doing so," he said.

Burger said that the blue energy age could be upon us within the next 15 years.

"It’s possible, if we can successfully establish the technology on a commercial scale and the public sees the benefits.

"It can’t just be a good idea, it has to make good fiscal sense, and blue energy is both," he said.

Burger said that blue energy has economic advantages over fuel cells and cold fusion methods of power generation.

"Cold fusion, even after hundreds of millions of dollars, (proponents) aren’t forecasting profits. Ours will be very quick. We will be a going concern after our third or fourth unit produced," he said.

"That’s within a year to 15 months, while fuel cells won’t show profits for another four or five years."

Already 186 investors have positioned themselves behind the company. On Sept. 19 Burger will address the CEO of Alcoa in Knoxville, Tennessee.

"This may be the end of the opportunity for smaller investors," said Burger.

When the first strategic alliance partner steps forward, one of the conditions for their participation is that they have all the investment opportunities from that point onward going to them, so that may close the door for the smaller investor, he said.