Columbia Power reshuffles wave team

Wave energy developer Columbia Power Technologies (CPower) has reshaped the structure of its wave energy team with two new promotions related to its Oregon division in charge of the company’s product development.

Michael Ondusko has been named the new Vice President of Operations for CPower. He joined the company in 2014 and has 28 years of engineering, procurement, manufacturing and project management experience.

Ondusko holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. In his new position, he will be responsible for project planning and execution.

The engineering and support team, based in Corvallis in Oregon, will report to Ondusko, according to CPower.

Joe Prudell, who joined CPower in 2008 as part of its initial engineering team and currently holds the position of Senior Research and Development Engineer, has assumed additional responsibilities as Director of Oregon Corporate Operations.

In this role, Prudell will be responsible for corporate facilities and infrastructure in Oregon.

He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a MS in Engineering from Oregon State University, where he specialized in ocean wave energy and electromechanical energy conversion.

To remind, CPower is developing the StingRAY wave energy device, intended for utility-scale applications.

The device uses two floats to capture wave energy and two rotary permanent-magnet generators to convert the energy into electricity.

Each float is directly coupled to its own generator, which enables a single energy-capture/conversion cycle.