A new renewable energy project is about to make waves off the coast of Oregon. No, we’re not talking about off-shore wind, we’re talking wave power: clean, green electricity generating by nothing more than the movement of the ocean itself.

Wave power, according to USA Today’s Green House, works by means of a floating buoy that rises and falls with ocean surface waves, driving a plunger connected to a hydraulic pump that converts the up and down motion into electricity. The company behind the installation, Ocean Power Technologies (OPT), has its first PowerBuoy wave power generator planned for at a site off the coast of Reedsport, Oregon, with nine more to follow by 2012.

image via Ocean Power Technologies

The Reedsport  wave park project is currently in the environmental permitting phase, but OPT anticipates filing a Final License Application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission soon. The project is expected to deliver approximately 4,140 megawatt-hours per year to the Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative, which is enough to power 375 homes and displace an estimated 2,110 tons of CO2 on an annual basis.