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Page added on August 31, 2013
US Could Tap Into 1400 Terawatt Hours Of Clean Ocean Power
As the US offshore wind power industry slowly (very slowly) cranks up to speed, let’s not forget that US coastal waters also represent a huge, as-yet-untapped energy resource in the form of waves, tides and currents. The Department of Energy estimates the total could come up to 1400 terawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power millions of homes. The problem is getting the private sector to take the plunge into uncharted technological waters, and to that end DOE has just announced a new round of $16 million funding, including public-private partnerships, to help kick things into gear.
The money will go to 17 projects that cover efficiency improvements in wave and tidal generators as well as data collection and environmental surveys.
More And Better Tidal and Wave Power
Descriptions of the 17 projects are available here, and since the recipients include a couple of companies that CleanTechnica has been following let’s focus on those.
Ocean Renewable Power Company laid claim to launching the first grid-connected commercial tidal energy project in the US last year, called TideGen. The company will get $1.93 million to develop an advanced control system that will predict tidal conditions, with the goal of improving turbine performance when tidal conditions are extremely rough and less than optimal.
Tidal power system courtesy of ORPC.
The company will get another $3 million to develop advanced components for wave, tidal and current generators, to measure performance, and to assess how these components can be incorporated into existing technology.
Ocean Power Technologies has been working extensively with the US Navy on a buoy-based wave power system called PowerBuoy, and it will get $1 million to redesign the float for the device, as well as its spar (the cylindrical body encapsulating the device). The goal is to improve efficiency and reduce production costs by cutting down on float and spar mass, which together account for about half the total mass of the PowerBuoy.
Speaking of the Navy, though Ocean Renewable Energy can lay claim to the first commercial grid connection for tidal power, it looks like the Navy and Ocean Power nailed wave power grid connection back in 2010, at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, in Oahu.
The Navy has also been ramping up facilities at its existing wave power test bed in Hawaii with the goal of providing an up-to-date shared R&D platform for private sector wave power developers.
More Power, Less Impact
A significant chunk of the new round of funding will go to assess impacts on marine life. The Electric Power Research Institute, for example, will get $300,000 to assess the potential impact of undersea electromagnetic fields from transmission lines, and the University of Washington will get $400,000 to assess the impact of noise from tidal devices specifically on marine mammals including killer whales, porpoises and seals.
Another notable project comes under Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which will get $95,000 to study the impact of tidal turbines on fish populations, based on the operation of an existing tidal power project in New York City by the company Verdant Power. The goal is to develop assessment tools that can be used at other tidal and riverine sites.
Don’t Forget The Inland Waterways!
This round of funding focuses mainly on wave and tidal power along US coasts, but the Obama Administration has also been looking to tap America’s inland waterways as a significant source of low-impact renewable energy. That includes modifying existing dams to extract more power as well as developing hydrokinetic devices that generate power from ambient currents rather than requiring new dam construction.
To help accelerate the private hydrokinetic sector, the Obama Administration is also funding a new shared research and development facility called RiverSphere at Tulane University in Louisiana.
Yet Another Nail In The Keystone XL Coffin
If there is one dead horse worth beating it’s the notorious Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline proposal, which advocates have touted as an essential job-creating machine even though it will only account for a few dozen permanent positions in the US, virtually none of which involve innovative technology.
Contrast that with all of the current and potential activity surrounding wave, tidal and current energy development in the US, and the job-creating pitch disappears in a puff of smoke.
The pipeline also creates new risks to hundreds of waterways along its route from Canadian tar sands fields to Texas refineries without adding a drop to the domestic energy market (it’s an export project, after all), so in effect US consumers bear all the risk and none of the benefits from this energy project — again, compared to marine and riverine power development, which can tie directly into local grids.
With the US investing billions in both private and public sector dollars for new clean technology designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s also worth noting that fossil fuel projects like Keystone essentially nullify those efforts, which the Sierra Club and several other environmental heavy-hitters hope to demonstrate once and for all in a new report on the global warming impact of Keystone.
6 Comments on "US Could Tap Into 1400 Terawatt Hours Of Clean Ocean Power"
DC on Sun, 1st Sep 2013 2:11 am
CT is such a joke a site, truly….
GregT on Sun, 1st Sep 2013 2:59 am
Metals, machinery, and electricity, do not interact well at all, with seawater. Just like everything else that is exposed to a marine environment, I would give this ‘technology’ one or two decades at most, before it would need to be replaced.
Oh, and did I mention that fossil fuels are required to build, maintain, and replace the infrastructure?
Better to start focussing on how to feed the masses, without fossil fuel energy, than to worry about how to power all of our gadgets, that also require fossil fuel energy to build, maintain, and replace.
BillT on Sun, 1st Sep 2013 3:11 am
“…US Could Tap Into 1400 Terawatt Hours Of Clean Ocean Power…”
And, the oceans could turn into oil… Both are as likely to happen. The techies are worshiping at their alter of progress again. lol
No thought to production energy/resources, maintenance or replacement, and especially to financing and the cost to consumers down-line. No profits means it is not going to happen.
Arthur on Sun, 1st Sep 2013 5:55 am
“CT is such a joke a site, truly….”
Why? CT is on my daily list of sites to visit. It is an excellent rich source for pointers to new technological developments in the field of renewable technology.
“Metals, machinery, and electricity, do not interact well at all, with seawater”
Oiltankers, aircraft carriers, subsea pipelines can operate for decades.
“Oh, and did I mention that fossil fuels are required to build, maintain, and replace the infrastructure?”
That is the prevailing uninformed opinion here, but that does not make it necessarily true. A kwh is a kwh, regardless of its source.
“The techies are worshiping at their alter of progress again. ”
Nobody talks of progress here, the challenge is to create a bottom for a hopefully not too hard landing of industrial society.
” No profits means it is not going to happen.”
There is no reason why a North-American can’t work for 300$/month, just like a west-Ukrainian now, after the dollar reserve currency free lunch is over. When that happens, everything is possible, including technology as described in the article.
Being a doomer fundamentalist is too easy.
GregT on Sun, 1st Sep 2013 7:13 am
Oil tankers, and aircraft carriers, require daily maintenance, and if left under water for a decade, would no longer function. Subsea pipelines are not mechanical, and are well shielded from seawater.
A kwh from camel dung is not the same as a kwh from rocket fuel, not even close. Come on Arthur, even you know better than that. No one should need to explain this to you.
Industrial society will end when fossil fuels are no longer available. Whether they become scarce, too expensive, or we walk away from them. It makes no difference. Time to start thinking about a different society, one without industry, computers, or electronic gadgetry. Focussing on food production, and water security would be a very smart place to start.
It won’t happen because modern industrial society, and free market capitalism, are based on greed, not mutual benefit. If there is no profit to be made, people are not going to go out of their way to help each other to get ahead.
Communism, and socialism will not work in North America, at least not now. Many decades of instilled propaganda will make sure of that. Many here would fight to the death against it.
J-Gav on Sun, 1st Sep 2013 11:49 am
“Uncharted technological waters.” The article got that right so … don’t hold your breath for a major scale-up of ocean power. Though it can be useful locally (already is on the Ile of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides), we’ll have wait to see what the maintenance/repairs bill looks like in the mid-term before getting a clearer idea on financial viability here. For the while, I remain, as usual, skeptical.