Wave-powered smart buoy upgrade program for ocean sensing

Smart Buoy Upgrade Program for Climate Resiliency

Establish a program to upgrade Hawai'i's existing aid-to-navigation and fish aggregating marker buoys into wave-energy-powered buoys that can host sensors for community members, state agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Storm conditions from recent Kona lows and El Nino conditions have brought into focus issues surrounding water quality, food security, ocean safety, hurricane preparedness, and the impact of terrestrial pollution on ocean ecosystems, and the community and state agencies lack the timely distribution of data in each of these areas, which is required for effective planning and decision making. The primary barrier to this data collection is the cost and logistical effort imposed by collecting information in the ocean; many sensing capabilities could collect this information remotely, but the on-site power infrastructure does not exist and is prohibitively expensive for any one organization to enact. The state of Hawai'i presently has over 350 aid-to-navigation and fish aggregating devices around the islands, all simple marker buoys that provide minimal to no data, already placed in areas of interest such as harbor entrances, navigation lanes adjacent to coral reefs, and as markers for fishing areas. These buoys could be electrified using wave energy to provide the needed power infrastructure for affixing sensors of interest. Hawaii Ocean Power Solutions (HOPS) has configured a wave energy converter called Hālona to function as a wave-powered aid to navigation buoy that could serve as an upgrade; the buoy produces power on the same principles as the Hālona blowhole, using the ocean surface to force air through an opening with an enclosed turbine generator to produce electricity without directly interfering with seawater. HOPS has identified operational units within the DLNR DAR, PacIOOS, Department of Health, Department of Transportation, conservation NGOs, and local ocean-going community members with common sensing objectives. The proposed program would work with DLNR DAR, NOAA, HDOT, PacIOOS, and USCG to identify buoys of opportunity to fund as upgrades for common community infrastructure, engaging community members and state agencies to rank priority areas for funding, work with organizations to identify sensing needs, and enable the projects.