In the United States, waves and tides represent a largely untapped renewable energy resource that could provide clean, affordable energy to homes and businesses across the country’s coastal regions. The Energy Department estimates that U.S. wave and tidal resources could generate approximately 1,420 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, about one-third of the United States’ total annual electricity usage. Today, the Energy Department launched a new Energy 101 video on a range of innovative MHK technologies and the Department’s research and development efforts to improve performance and lower costs. Additional information on these efforts is available through Open Energy Information’s new Water Power Gateway.

Through the new funding opportunity announced today, the Energy Department intends to support projects that increase the power-to-weight ratio of MHK devices or improve system reliability through investment in the following component technologies:

Advanced Controls (up to 6 awards; $500,000-$2 million each): Selected projects will develop advanced control systems, including software or hardware, and perform numerical modeling or testing to assess performance improvements. These types of controls offer opportunities to optimize energy capture and system load, which can increase output and system reliability.

Next-Generation Power Take-Offs (up to 2 awards; $3 million each): Through the development of lighter, more compact and more efficient “power take-offs” (PTOs)—the MHK sub-system that includes the hardware needed to convert mechanical motion into electrical power—the selected projects will increase system and component reliability and modularity to make PTOs longer-lasting and easier to repair.

Optimized Structures (up to 2 awards; $1 million each): Selected projects will develop and test an advanced device structure that minimizes the loads transmitted to other components and increases the device’s ability to withstand extreme conditions.

Applicants are requested to submit a letter of intent by May 13, 2013. Read the full solicitation on the Financial Opportunities web page.

Oregon lawmakers don’t want the state to get stuck with the bill if a wave-energy company installs equipment off shore and then goes belly up.

The Senate voted Monday to require that companies experimenting with wave energy in Oregon’s territorial waters show they have enough money to recover their equipment when they’re done with it. They’d be required to remove equipment two years after it’s no-longer needed.

Democratic Sen. Arnie Roblan of Coos Bay says one company lost a buoy anchor and paid the cost of an expensive search and recovery. Roblan says he doesn’t want the state to be on the hook for cleanup costs if other wind-energy equipment goes awry.

The restriction applies only to wave energy projects within three miles of the Oregon coast.

The two-day training session will include presentations by experts from NREL on offshore wind and marine hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies and will also include industry panel discussions. The first day of the training, May 21, 2013, will focus on offshore wind technology and the second day, May 22, 2013, will focus on MHK technology.

This FREE two-day training session for the BOEM State Intergovernmental Task Force members and the public will be held at:

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
1945 SE Water Ave
Portland, Oregon

At the OMSI Auditorium
8:30am – 5pm Tuesday, May 21
And
8:30am – 3pm Wednesday, May 22

Information on OMSI, including directions and parking information, may be found here. Parking is free for all attendees of the workshop.

** All BOEM State Intergovernmental Task Force members please RSVP to email below:

Contact: Jean Thurston, Oregon Task Force Coordinator, Jean.Thurston@boem.gov, 805.384.4704

Principle Power Wind Float

For the first time in recent history, South Coast fisherman are on board with an offshore industrial project.

Nick Edwards, a representative of the Southern Oregon Ocean Resource Coalition, said the organization supports Principle Power’s plans for a 30-megawatt wind energy flotilla off the South Coast.

“It’s better to work with these people and be part of the process,” Edwards said. The commissioner said fisherman needed six months to reach agreement among themselves.

“It’s still not going to make a bunch of people happy,” he said.

The company plans to anchor its proposed wind farm beyond the three-mile limit, outside of state jurisdiction and under federal law. The wind energy platforms would be anchored in about 1,000 feet of water.

The placement would help avoid conflict with the South Coast’s commercial fishing fleet.

The company received a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy in March. The initial grant could expand to as much as $47 million. Kevin Banister, vice president of business and government affairs, said the project is one of seven wind technology demonstrations selected by the Energy Department.

Of the seven, Principle’s is the only West Coast proposal. The agency plans to narrow the list to three projects after the initial planning and test phase.

The company intends to moor five 6-megawatt wind turbines off the Oregon Coast. Banister said the turbine blades would be installed in Coos Bay, and the platforms would be launched from the North Spit.

The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay is partnering with the wind power company on the project.

The port originally entered into negotiations with the Principle Power in March 2012 in an attempt to compete for the Energy Department grant. The port has named the endeavor Project Effectuate.

Banister said the wind power project dovetails with proposed construction of a liquefied natural gas export terminal on Coos Bay’s North Spit.

“This project happens on almost exactly the same timeline as Jordan Cove,” Banister said.

Banister said the wind project would benefit from infrastructure provided by Jordan Cove Energy Project. But Principle could move forward without the LNG terminal.

“Plan A is Jordan Cove,” Banister said. “Plan B is not so good. Plan B is harder.”

The political news website The Hill reported Thursday that the Energy Department expects to begin deciding on LNG export applications “very soon.”

Banister said Principle Power wants the community to support the project and plans public meetings next month.

In meeting America’s energy needs, the marine hydrokinetic industry could be the wave of the future.

Harnessing tides, currents and waves produces clean, domestically sourced power that could generate up to one-third of the United States’ total electricity usage, according to Department of Energy. It’s also an industry growing on U.S. shores and bringing jobs to remote areas.

“I think this is the energy of the future for us in so many different ways,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said yesterday at the annual Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Ocean Renewable Power Co. (ORPC) launched the first grid-connected marine hydrokinetic project in the Western Hemisphere late last year at Cobscook Bay in Maine. The 150-kilowatt TidGen device captures energy from tidal currents and delivers it to shore via underwater power cable.

In January, the company generated its first renewable energy credit. By early next year, it plans to put two more 150 kW TidGen devices in the water.

But perhaps the biggest achievement is that ORPC’s first comprehensive environmental reviewreleased yesterday found that the installation — which looks like a giant push mower — had no detrimental effects on the surrounding environment.

“We now have all the science … there are no observed negative interactions between our TidGen power system and the marine environment,” said Christopher Sauer, president and CEO of ORPC. “There is actually nothing that’s been observed to have an adverse impact. I think that’s huge.”

Maze of regulatory hoops

“You’ve proven you do have an environmental effect,” said Sean O’Neill, president of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, at yesterday’s symposium. “That’s no SOx [sulfur oxides], no NOx [nitrogen oxides], no carbon, no mercury, no emissions — it’s emissions-free.”

“It’s also not a sushi maker, which is the result of this study,” he said.

The findings represent a landmark moment for the marine renewable industry as a whole. With no precedent to follow, getting approval for marine hydrokinetic projects of all types has required jumping through a seemingly endless number of regulatory hoops, which delays implementation and drives up costs, say supporters.

Most ocean power projects currently have to get separate approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Coast Guard, possibly the Navy and several other agencies before entering the water. In some cases, companies have been asked to provide environmental research that simply doesn’t exist yet.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) expressed concern at yesterday’s symposium that the existing regulatory process could kill the industry before it really begins.

“I sincerely hope we’re going to find a way to develop ocean energy where the federal government can be a partner in this incredibly important resource and not an obstacle that raises the cost of entry to where it becomes unfeasible,” he said.

A budgetary nod

Like ORPC, other companies are progressing, too. Verdant Power was actually the first company to receive a commercial license from FERC for its 1-megawatt tidal project in New York City’s East River. The company is now on track to put its first turbines in the water in 2014 and complete installation by 2015.

This spring, New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies is preparing to deploy its wave energy device off the coast of Oregon. Columbia Power Technologies will soon begin testing a new, more efficient wave energy product, and Northwest Energy Innovations will start testing its wave energy device at a Navy test site in Hawaii.

All of these projects have received varying levels of financial and technological support from the Department of Energy.

The water power sector, which includes both marine hydrokinetic and conventional hydro, is currently operating on about $56 million in government funding, which includes a 5 percent budget cut from the sequester, according to Jose Zayas, DOE’s wind and water power program manager. Marine hydrokinetic energy receives about two-thirds of DOE’s dedicated water power funding.

In the Obama administration’s new 2014 budget request, the president proposed to boost funding for the renewable water power portfolio to $55 million. The budget request for fiscal 2013 was $20 million.

“What we have done successfully is really shifted the trend, and that is incredibly difficult, especially in the fiscal environment that we’re in,” Zayas said.

“I think it’s just a recognition that this administration is really behind renewable energies, and in this particular case, water power technologies,” he added.

Bipartisan potential

Under the president’s proposed budget, actual funding levels for the marine energy industry would essentially stay flat through next year. That is not the increase industry supporters were hoping for, but it is still 88 percent higher than funding levels three years ago, said Murkowski, who has been a strong advocate for marine energy projects off the coast of Alaska.

Even during these rough financial times, she said, she expects Congress will soon pass legislation to support renewable marine energy.

“I really do think you’ll see Congress pass bipartisan legislation to advance marine hydrokinetic research that the president will sign into law. And I don’t usually make predictions about what may happen with legislation going forward, because it’s just such a sketchy world up there on the Hill right now,” she said. “But I’m feeling good about it.”

Murkowski said that she and Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have already started to craft legislation that would reinforce marine energy testing centers and streamline project approval. But the bill has stalled, since lawmakers haven’t yet found a way to offset the cost.

“We’re looking under rocks,” Murkowski said.

The DOE is working closely with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to support and promote increased understanding of the potential environmental effects of marine and hydrokinetic energy devices. This FOA will support the collection of environmental monitoring and experimental data from MHK devices and analyses of existing data.

Letter of Intent Due: April 18, 2013
Application Due: May 16, 2013

More information.

“The power generator performed exactly as we expected, demonstrating a very high correlation between the actual output and the output we predicted based on the wave conditions,” said Chief Executive Officer Rahul Shendure. “Winter storms on the lake offered ideal conditions for a first trial, giving us a great foundation for our ocean testing off the New Hampshire coast this summer.”

Enabled by its iMEC™ technology platform, OPI’s wave energy harvester uses readily available and low-cost magnetostrictive alloys to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy without moving parts. The harvester will use a highly scalable and modular architecture to deliver utility-scale power that is cost competitive with coal or natural gas.

“We were excited to help with the deployment here in Seattle,” said Jim Thomson, Principal Oceanographer at APL-UW and Assistant Professor of Environmental Fluid Mechanics in UW’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “In addition to its potential to be a game-changer for ocean renewable energy, OPI’s technology could bring reliable power to remote oceanographic buoys, dramatically reducing the cost of collecting this important data.”

The system deployed in Lake Washington will undergo further testing in May at the U.S. Department of Interior’s Ohmsett test facility in New Jersey, followed by a summer deployment at the Isle of Shoals, NH test site operated by the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Ocean Renewable Energy. The National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy have provided funding for these programs.

The list of partners for the WindFloat Pacific Demonstration Project include: Siemens Wind Power, MacArtney Underwater Technology, Houston Offshore Engineering the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, RPS Evan Hamilton, Forristal Ocean Engineering, the American Bureau of Shipping and Det Norske Veritas.

The WindFloat Pacific Demonstration Project is centred around a 30MW floating offshore wind farm, planned to be located approximately 25 kilometres west of Oregon’s Port of Coos Bay. Based on a patented floating foundation for offshore wind turbines, the features of the WindFloat allow turbines to be placed at deep water locations, out-of-sight from shore where the wind is stronger and more consistent.

The WindFloat offers “considerable economical advantages” over traditional offshore wind solutions, the firm says, since the entire turbine and floating foundation is built and assembled on shore, and installed using conventional tug vessels. This way, the WindFloat is also a “more cost-effective, simpler and less risky approach to offshore wind development”.

A prototype has been operating successfully off the coast of Portugal since October 2011. This installation marks the first multi-megawatt offshore wind turbine to be installed without the use of any heavy lift offshore vessels.

According to Alla Weinstein, CEO of Principle Power, “the WindFloat eliminates many installation and environmental risks, while offering access to more robust wind resources, resulting in a reduction in the cost of energy”.

A more elaborate scope of work for the Principle Power project, as well as the scope of involvement by the project partners, will be finalised in the coming months.