Governor Carcieri will announce an agreement today with an Australian renewable energy company to develop two wave-energy projects in the waters off Block Island and Point Judith.

The floating turbines would be the first wave energy project in Rhode Island and have the potential to provide power to thousands of homes and businesses without burning fossil fuels.

The governor’s office said yesterday that the agreement would be signed at the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus in Narragansett by Carcieri and Tom Denniss, executive director and chief technology officer for Oceanlinx Limited, based in Sydney, Australia.

Few details about the project were released yesterday. But a memorandum of understanding signed Oct. 5 by Carcieri and representatives from Oceanlinx, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources contained some general outlines.

The memorandum, obtained by The Journal, said the Block Island facility would be started first. The state would provide financing of up to $4 million for the project through the sale of bonds, the document said.

The agreement said the Block Island project would produce about 500 kilowatts, solely for the island’s use. But the governor’s office said yesterday the Block Island project could produce three times that amount, or 1.5 megawatts, enough to provide power to about 1,350 homes. (The island’s power now comes from diesel generators, costing nearly four times what the rest of Rhode Island pays for power.)

The Point Judith project would produce about 15 to 20 megawatts, the document said — enough energy to power about 13,500 to 18,000 homes.

The agreement says Oceanlinx would locate its East Coast business headquarters in Rhode Island and either build the turbines itself or contract with a Rhode Island company to build them.

Jeff Neal, spokesman for the governor, said the Oct. 5 document reflects a general understanding to work together on the project, but is not legally binding. He would not say whether the agreement has been modified since then.

Malcolm Spaulding, a URI professor of ocean engineering who has consulted with Oceanlinx, said the company’s electricity generators consist of devices that compress air as waves rise and fall. The air propels turbines, which produce energy that is delivered onshore through cables that will would be drilled horizontally under the sea floor.

The exact locations of the projects have not been determined yet, and neither project has been reviewed by the Coastal Resources Management Council, which has jurisdiction over Rhode Island’s coastal waters.

Carcieri has set a goal for the state to receive 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2011. The state is also exploring development of wind turbine farms in several potential sites off Block Island, Watch Hill and Little Compton.

Any bond sale would need approval of the General Assembly and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. If the money were approved, the Block Island project would begin producing energy within 12 months after money has been raised.

Oceanlinx is an international renewable energy company that develops technology to produce energy from ocean waves and convert it to electricity. It also uses similar technology to provide energy to desalinate water.

The company’s Web site lists five other current wave energy projects worldwide, including Hawaii, the United Kingdom, Namibia and two in Australia.

Oceanlinx uses a patented technology called the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device, based on the established science of wave energy, but with improvements, the company says.

The technology has been successfully constructed and tested with the first full-scale Oceanlinx wave plant, installed at Port Kembla in Australia, in operation for over two years, the Web site says.

ngarcia@projo.com