Tremont Electric is developing a new energy source with its recently patented nPower Wave Energy Converter (WEC). The four-year-old Cleveland company made a huge splash with its  nPower PEG,  a pint-size power plant that allows people to charge their hand-held devices while walking, running or biking. Their new product uses the waves of Lake Erie -- and ultimately larger bodies of water -- to generate commercial-scale electricity.

“We put it in something like a buoy and it rides the waves and is able to convert the waves to electric power,” explains Tremont Electric inventor, founder, and CEO Aaron LeMieux.

While other energy companies are exploring wave energy around the world, LeMieux says Lake Erie provides a great testing ground. “We can do the same thing here, but we can do it much more quickly because we can do it in a small boat versus a 200-foot research vessel,” he says. “The wave profile in Lake Erie -- higher frequency waves -- means faster test results.”

Roughly the size of an automobile, the nPower WEC is poised to help reinvent the manufacturing base of the Midwest into the clean energy job creator of the future.

"Our vision is to put Northeast Ohio at the top of the new clean energy economy," says LeMieux. “This is a brand new industry. It could be compared to the automobile industry.”

LeMieux says that jobs could be created across the board in manufacturing within the next two years as Tremont Electric secures funding and further develops the converter.

Source: Aaron LeMieux
Writer: Karin Connelly