Posts Tagged ‘Pacific Marine Energy Center’

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OWET Releases Request for Proposals

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013

Oregon Wave Energy Trust (OWET) released today two requests for proposals for its work in support of the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC).

Wave Energy Market Analysis

Due: June 12, 2013

The Market Analysis for the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC) is intended to identify potential clients and their needs based on the current and future (the next five to ten years) requirements of the ocean renewable energy industry. This analysis shall determine whom PMEC should target, and what infrastructure and services PMEC should provide. The analysis should include, but will not be limited to: a Sector Profile (technology and market trends, and prospects), Technical Requirements (construction, deployment, mooring configuration, interconnection, operations and maintenance) and Services Offerings of PMEC (performance monitoring and analysis, environmental monitoring and analysis, engineering support, and regulatory and permitting support).

Details: Wave Energy Market Analysis

Oregon Wave Energy Supply Chain Analysis

Due: June 12, 2013

The Supply Chain Analysis is intended to look at the availability and accessibility of products and services necessary for demonstration stage development, and the monetary costs of those products and services must be well defined in order to identify resources and potential gaps. A well-defined supply chain can highlight the maturity, strengths, weaknesses and areas of opportunity for a particular industry or market sector. The supply chain areas to be focused on in this report include, but are not limited to: professional services, material suppliers, manufacturing and construction providers, transportation, assembly, deployment, operations and maintenance, emergency response, removal and decommissioning, and labor (workforce and professional services).

Details: Wave Energy Supply Chain Analysis

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Big US Wave Energy Test Center Going To Newport, Oregon

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013
By Pete Danko

The U.S. intends to get serious about wave energy development in Newport, Oregon.

The seaside town of 10,000, an hour’s drive over the Coast Range from Corvallis (home to wave energy leader Oregon State University), was selected to be the site of the Pacific Marine Energy Center, the country’s first utility-scale, grid-connected test site.

pacific marine energy center

The Oregon coast at Newport (image via Wikimedia Commons)

The test center would provide companies a patch of water and the infrastructure to test their devices, a necessity in the infant industry’s quest to prove it can be a contributor to U.S. electrical grids.

The Department of Energy last September seeded the effort to build the PMEC with a $4 million grant, to be matched by outside funds. More funding will be needed over the course of the several years needed to complete the PMEC, but regional leaders are driving hard to make it a reality.

The state of Oregon believes the PMEC – modeled after the highly successful European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland – will cement its position as the home base for U.S. wave energy development, bringing plenty of jobs developing, manufacturing, deploying and servicing wave energy devices. (Plus, there’s the clean energy.)

“PMEC represents a major step toward the development of energy from Oregon’s ocean waters,” Jason Busch of the public-private Oregon Wave Energy Trust, a backer of the PMEC, said in a statement. “I’m certain that Oregon will reap benefits from PMEC for many years to come, and the research and development performed at PMEC will help usher in this new form of reliable electricity from the sea.”

The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, based at Oregon State and the University of Washington, is heading up the PMEC development. Last fall, the NNMREC deployed the Ocean Sentinel, a small-scale ocean test buoy platform with no grid connection. It was a good step forward, but nothing like what the PMEC promises to be.

The search for a PMEC host began with four communities under serious consideration before Newport and Reedsport were named as finalists last September. The NNMREC said “the communities were similar in their capacities and capabilities, and the final choice focused on making PMEC a global competitor among international test facilities.”

While Newport will be a hub for the PMEC development, the NNMREC added that “the exact ocean location for the PMEC site will be finalized in the next few months in a zone that has been selected in collaboration with ocean stakeholders – an area that will not impede shipping lanes and takes environmental impacts into consideration.”

Reedsport, by the way, will still be a part of Oregon’s wave energy future, and soon: This spring, Ocean Power Technologies says it will deploy its commercial, utility-scale PowerBuoy wave energy device two and a half miles off the coast near the town. OPT, based in New Jersey, is the first company to be fully licensed to run a grid-connected wave power array in the United States.

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Pacific Marine Energy Center to land in Newport

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013
By Christina Williams

The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center announced Monday that it will locate the first utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site in the U.S. in Newport.

The federally funded wave energy research center, which is based at Oregon State University, had last year narrowed its search to site what will be called the Pacific Marine Energy Center to Reedsport and Newport.

Newport won out and following permitting and other development work will host wave energy devices at an ocean site about five miles off shore. Undersea cables will transmit power from the devices to the local power grid.

The Pacific Marine Energy Center will be 50 percent funded by $4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center is working on funding sources for the balance of the project’s price tag.

Jason Busch, executive director of the Oregon Wave Energy Trust said in a press release Oregon will reap the benefits from the center for years to come.

The Pacific Marine Energy Center is expected to have four “test berths,” for testing individual devices or small arrays of wave energy devices. It will also collect data associated with environmental impacts. Completion will take several years.

The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center is already testing devices in the ocean, notably its Ocean Sentinel, which was deployed last year in the ocean north of Yaquina Head.

NNMREC is a partnership between OSU and University of Washington.

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Newport selected as home of Pacific Marine Energy Center

Monday, January 14th, 2013

The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, or NNMREC, which is based at Oregon State University, has chosen Newport, Ore., as the future site of the first utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site in the United States – the Pacific Marine Energy Center.

The Pacific Marine Energy Center, or PMEC, will test energy generation potential and the environmental impacts of wave energy devices, at an ocean site about five miles from shore. Subsea cables will transmit energy from the wave energy devices to the local power grid, and data to scientists and engineers at on-shore facilities.

The first installment of funding for PMEC was received in September, 2012, consisting of $4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, along with a non-federal cost match.

“PMEC represents a major step toward the development of energy from Oregon’s ocean waters,” said Jason Busch of the Oregon Wave Energy Trust. “I’m certain that Oregon will reap benefits from PMEC for many years to come, and the research and development performed at PMEC will help usher in this new form of reliable electricity from the sea.”

PMEC design and specific site characterization will begin soon, along with the permitting and regulatory process. NNMREC will continue to work with a variety of partners to develop additional funding sources. The exact ocean location for the PMEC site will be finalized in the next few months in a zone that has been selected in collaboration with ocean stakeholders – an area that will not impede shipping lanes and takes environmental impacts into consideration.

The Pacific Marine Energy Center will have four “test berths,” open spaces of water dedicated to testing individual devices or small arrays of devices, each of which will be connected to the community’s electrical grid. It will also collect data associated with environmental and human dimension impacts. Completion will take several years.

“This site selection builds on the global reputation of Oregon State University in both renewable energy research and marine science,” said Rick Spinrad, OSU vice president for research. “Future research results from this site will help ensure our state’s leadership in these critical areas.”

The development and operation of this facility will provide jobs and other economic development as it attracts researchers and device developers to the Oregon coast from around the world, officials said. While under development, the Ocean Sentinel, NNMREC’s mobile ocean test buoy platform operating out of Toledo, will continue its work testing energy devices at its ocean test site north of Yaquina Head.

Advances in wave power technology are also one example of the growing partnerships between OSU and private industry. The university just announced a major new initiative, the Oregon State University Advantage, which includes such programs as the OSU Venture Accelerator and the Industry Partnering Program. It’s expected to help create 20 new businesses within the next five years while enhancing student education and Oregon’s economic growth.

In an extensive site selection process, NNMREC worked with four coastal communities to consider both technical criteria and community resources.  The options were narrowed last fall to Reedsport and Newport, the two communities that best matched the needed criteria for PMEC. Site selection teams from those communities submitted proposals in December.

The selection was ultimately based on ocean site characteristics, marine and on-shore cable routes, port and industry capabilities, impacts to existing ocean users, permitting challenges, stakeholder participation in the proposal process, and support of the local fishing communities.

“Both communities were committed to finding a home for PMEC,” said Kaety Hildenbrand of Oregon Sea Grant, coordinator of the site team process. “They spoke to their own strengths and demonstrated their unique assets.”

Belinda Batten, director of NNMREC, said the communities were similar in their capacities and capabilities, and the final choice focused on making PMEC a global competitor among international test facilities. All coastal communities will benefit from the growth of this industry on the Oregon coast, she said.

The Oregon Wave Energy Trust has supported PMEC and helped create a wave energy development regulatory process that meshes the needs of ocean stakeholders and the state. The agency has also helped address key points in Gov. Kitzhaber’s 10-year energy plan, including how wave energy is integrated into Oregon’s power grid while maintaining high environmental standards.

NNMREC is a partnership between OSU and University of Washington, focused on wave and tidal energy respectively, and receives a substantial part of its funding from U.S. Department of Energy. NNMREC operates a non-grid connected wave energy testing facility in Newport north of Yaquina Head and supports intermediate scale device testing in Puget Sound and Lake Washington. PMEC will complete the wave energy device test facilities.

About Oregon State University: OSU is one of only two U.S. universities designated a land-, sea-, space- and sun-grant institution. OSU is also Oregon’s only university to hold both the Carnegie Foundation’s top designation for research institutions and its prestigious Community Engagement classification. Its more than 26,000 students come from all 50 states and more than 90 nations. OSU programs touch every county within Oregon, and its faculty teach and conduct research on issues of national and global importance.

 

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Group says central coast best for wave energy research

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
By Larry Coonrod

Representatives from Newport, Toledo and Lincoln County are putting the finishing touches on a proposal this week that they hope will lure a $25-million offshore wave energy test facility to the central coast.

After a series of community meetings this fall, Newport and Reedsport became finalists for the siting of the Pacific Marine Energy Center, run by Oregon State University’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC). Committees from both towns have spent the last several weeks working with OSU Sea Grant Extension to craft proposals.

At stake is the potential for a large economic boost to the winning community . The site is similar to a wave energy test facility in the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland. Belinda Batten, NNMREC director, said the Orkney site contributes the U.S. Equivalent of $790,000 to the local economy.

Full scale testing of wave energy devices currently takes place in Europe, and those sites are booked five years in advance. The Newport siting committee says two port facilities one in Newport and the other in Toledo along with marine service companies and the area’s burgeoning ocean research industry make Lincoln County the logical home base for the PMEC deep-water test site.

Dock facilities at the Port of Toledo played a key role in NNMREC’s deployment in August of the $1.5-million Ocean Sentinel a mobile wave energy testing device and an experimental buoy at the Ocean Test Berth off Yaquina Head. Researchers use the test berth to try out small-scale wave energy devices .

Port of Toledo Manager Bud Shoemake said OSU used the port’s boatyard to launch the equipment, and port workers even helped assemble it. The facility would be an ideal assembly and staging area for PMEC devices with support from a large marine service industry , he said.

“Anything you can do to boats you’ll end up doing to buoys,” Shoemake said. “I’m talking about marine electricians , welders, painters and others. Yaquina Bay, Newport and Toledo are really lucky to have the type of marine service trade we’ve got.”

Don Mann, Port of Newport manager, said a planned marine technology center building on port property in South Beach could house PMEC administrative staff. The port has property on both sides of the bay suitable for equipment storage and laboratory space.

“We would certainly like to see them locate in Newport,” Mann said. “Growing the marine observation program is part of our overall strategic plan. This falls right in with the Hatfield Marine Science Center, the NOAA MOC-P , and the Oregon Coast Aquarium . It’s all part of that marinerelated industry we want to stick with, especially on the South Beach peninsula.”

The proposed PMEC site lies five miles due west of the Yaquina Bay south jetty. It is designed to handle up to four commercial-scale devices at a time. At two square miles in area, it is double the size of the current Newport facility and will have a connection to the onshore electrical grid, which the test berth lacks. At $1.5 million a mile, cabling the test site to the electrical grid is a key consideration in choosing the test site. Newport Community Development Director Derrick Tokos and others have identified six suitable areas for a shore side connection , ranging from Don Davis Park south to Lost Creek near Seal Rock.

Lincoln County Fishermen Involved in Natural Energy (FINE) recommended the PMEC site. According to FINE members it offers the depth needed to test large buoy devices and is not in an area used extensively by Newport’s sport and commercial fishing fleet. The state is in the final stages of amending its Territorial Sea Plan to identify areas for commercial wave energy development. State waters extend from the beach outward for three nautical miles.

FINE rejected a large commercial site north of Yaquina Head. Instead, the group backs wave energy research and, if NNMREC chooses Newport for the test site, wants Lincoln County exempted from energy development in its portion of territorial waters. Lincoln County Commissioners backed the FINE proposal in a message to Gov. John Kitzhaber. The Newport City Council voted to send a letter supporting FINE to the state’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council.

“Commercial fishing and fish processing contribute substantially to our local economy and in many ways define the character of our community,” the letter reads. “With that in mind, the City of Newport fully supports Lincoln County and FINE in their effort to limit future deployments off the county’s coastline to non-commercial wave energy operations. This approach promotes wave energy research while at the same time protecting the critical needs of our fishing industry.”

Proposals for the PMEC sites are due to NNMREC by Dec. 24. Kaety Hildenbrand, with OSU Sea Grant, said the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA and others will comment on the proposals , but ultimately the decision will rest solely with Batten , the NNMREC director.

“Those agencies will all have a larger say when we go out for permits,” Hildenbrand said. “This process is just the beginning.”

Building the site starts with a lengthy permitting process.

“I’d say two to four years,” Hildenbrand said. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded NNMREC a $4-million grant for the deep-water test site, but more funding sources need to be identified to complete the project. According to a 2009 study by ECONorthwest, Oregon has 500 megawatts of wave energy generating capacity. It’s an industry with the potential to create 802 coastal jobs during the five- to 10-year build period and require 264 employees when operational, according to the report. Ocean Power Technologies plans to deploy 10 commercial devices next year off of Reedsport. However, even the most optimistic industry backers say it will be at least a decade and likely much longer before the kind of commercialization envisioned by ECONorthwest is realized.

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FINE Committee Says Yes To Research and No To Commercial Wave Energy

Thursday, November 22nd, 2012

The Fishermen Involved In Natural Energy or FINE held their final meeting for the year. There was a lot to discuss with regard to the recommendations for wave energy sites for development for the Territorial Sea Plan. According to County Commissioner Terry Thompson this has been lengthy and contentious process trying to figure out what the future holds for ocean planning. In the end the FINE members agreed to make a commitment to research only off of Lincoln County waters. He said they are not willing to have commercial build out sites off Lincoln County for wave energy. Thompson said this message is crystal clear.

They support OSU and the NW National Marine Renewable Energy Center or NNMREC and support the efforts of putting in a grid-connected site through the Pacific Marine Energy Center or PMEC. At the FINE meeting the PMEC Community Site Team was selected. This is the group that will advocate for the grid-connected site to be in Newport instead of Reedsport. There are a variety of members including those that represent commercial fishing, the port, PUD, local government, economic development along with charter fishing, tribes and the public at large.

The group would still like to add a few more fishermen representing commercial, recreational or charter and some representatives of marine related business. The first meeting of the group will be on Tuesday November 27th. Commissioner Thompson said the FINE group discussed a site that would work for the PMEC located about 6-miles west of Newport that will have the least amount of impact to the fishing industry. He said they will also advocate to the governor’s office for more time in putting together the territorial sea plan. The governor has said he would like the plan approved and ready to present to the legilature by the end of January.

Here is a list of the site team members:

Paul Stannard (commercial fishing), Walter Chuck (Port), Bruce Lovelin (Central Lincoln PUD), Derrick Tokos (local government), Caroline Bauman (economic development), Paul Amundson (public at large), John Lavrakas (marine infrastructure), George Boehlert (economic development), David Allen (public at large), Ralph Grutzmacher (local government), Jack Craven (charter fishing), Tracy A Bailey (Tribes), Doug Hunt (Local Government).

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Ocean Wave Energy Technology and Oregon’s Process

Thursday, November 15th, 2012
By Michelle Weigand Miller

If I were to look at the earth from a fair distance while contemplating how to harvest energy from this jewel, oceans and running water would strike me as part of nature’s grand plan. Indeed, when I need to recharge, I head for the coast to soak up as much vitality from the waves, currents and the tides as I can manage.

Oregon and Washington are doing the same, probably less romantically, but far more pragmatically. Perhaps it is because the manner in which Oregon has embarked on this endeavor is so transparent, or that watching the birth of any entity is interesting, or because OWET (Oregon Wave Energy Trust) has taken special cares to include all stakeholders. For these reasons and more, I find Oregon’s commitment to and process for supporting the commercialization of wave energy to be scalable, fascinating and productive.

WET-NZ Ocean Wave Energy Converter connects to NNMREC’s Sentinel via the neon green cable for data collection.

Oregon is leveraging its natural, economic and human capital through strategic alliances. In 2005, Oregon’s Governor, Ted Kulongoski, and the legislature brought together more than 50 leaders from the private sector, the state’s four research universities and government to create a new way to do business.

From this voluntary collaboration sprang Oregon, InC. (Oregon Innova-tion Council), another voluntary council with a mission to help innovators create high-paying jobs, entrepreneurs create companies and university researchers bring federal and private research dollars to the state in a partnership between Oregon’s private sector leaders and its research universities.

Oregon InC. developed a rigorous evaluation process that runs biennially. This process yields three technical initiatives, which are then incubated and eventually accelerated to commercialization. Recognizing Oregon’s abundance of the three key ingredients of ocean wave energy: coastal access, the ability to supply energy to an existing grid (thanks to the timber industry) and technological expertise, it became an early contender in Oregon’s new economic development strategy.

In order to position Oregon as the North American leader in this nascent industry and deliver its full economic and environmental potential for the state, Oregon needed a bridge between federal, state, local and private needs, regulations and opportunities. In 2007, both Oregon, InC. ($28.2 M) and OWET were funded with Oregon State Lottery Funds, administered by the Oregon Business Development Department (Oregon, InC.) to serve as a connector for all stakeholders, from research and development to early stage community engagement, final deployment and energy generation and job creation. As a nonprofit public-private partnership, OWET’s mission is to promote the responsible development of ocean energy in Oregon and members from environmental groups, government, industry and fishing, OWET’s goal is to power two Oregon communities with ocean energy (25MW) by 2025.

In 2008, with OWET’s help, NNMREC (Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center) was established as a partnership between OSU (Oregon State University), UW (University of Washington), NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and numerous funding partners.

NNMREC’s portable Sentinel is currently collecting data from the WET-NZ ocean wave energy buoy off the coast of Newport, OR.

OSU and UW have split technical research responsibilities; OSU studies ocean wave energy and UW studies tidal and some current energy. Both universities collaborate on education, information dissemination and outreach activities. The other two National Marine Renewable Energy Labs are SNMREC at FAU (Florida Atlantic University) developing technology around open-ocean wave energy and OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) and HINMREC at University of Hawaii working on OTEC and wave energy conversion.

NNMREC (rhyme it with ‘limerick’) is embarking on the creation of PMEC (Pacific Marine Energy Center). PMEC will be an open ocean, grid connected, 4 berth, prototype and commercial test facility for ocean wave energy converters. The decision to locate this facility off of either Newport or Reedsport, Oregon is to be made by the end of the 2012. The balance of the funding is expected to come from the DOE, the State of Oregon, BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management), and private funding. Once the location is decided, licensing is expected to take 1-3 years.

OPT (Ocean Power Technologies) began testing off of New Jersey coast in the late 1990s and applied for its first FERC permit for testing off of Oregon in 2006. OPT has completed 1 of 3 phases of its Reedsport project proving the seaworthiness of an autonomous PB150 (Power Buoy150) in the waters off of Reedsport. Phase 2, launching in spring 2013, is to establish10 grid tied PB150s for a total 1.5MW sustained maximum output. Phase 3 scales the existing project to 50MW. True to its legacy as a groundbreaker, OPT will be responsible for the first commercial wave park on the US West Coast.

Energy is being harvested from ocean waves by numerous means YouTube has over 2,000 videos on ocean wave energy conversion technologies. Each of these early players has their own take on the best way to do this. Oregon has attracted Ocean Wave Energy start-ups and veterans alike from around the world. Atargis Energy, a cycloidal turbine based technology out of Colorado Springs, CO, expects their LCOE to be in the range of 8-14 cents per kWh, relative to the DOE’s estimated 18-34 cents per kWh (depending on several variables and a margin of error of ± 30% for ocean wave technology and .22 cents per kWh for off-shore wind. 2010 CleanTech Open Semi-Finalist, CPT (Columbia Power Technologies) of Corvalis, OR is currently preparing a full-scale device after successfully testing at fractionally-scaled levels at OSU’s Hinsdale’s Wave Research Lab and in the Puget Sound, M3 Wave, LLC from Salem, OR has an early technology-TRL2-3 based on an ‘energy reef’ concept. Salt Lake City’s Oscilla Power utilizes its proven and patented iMEC system to contribute to its elegant solution. WET-NZ (Wave Energy Technology-New Zealand) currently has a TRL8 test running off of Newport, being monitored by NNMREC’s Sentinel. Neptune Wave Power of Dallas, TX has benefitted from a relationship with OWET and has recently installed an energy buoy test with CORE (Center for Ocean Renewable Energy) at the University of New Hampshire, a significant research resource in the MHK (Marine Hydrokinetic) environment.

If I were a betting person, I would guess “Reedsport” for the site of PMEC, for no other reason than the strategic support that NNMREC and OPT will be able to afford each other during the installation of sub-marine grid tied energy facilities. On the other hand, if PMEC’s installation is delayed, perhaps spreading the ‘grid-tied wealth’ will be the smarter move. There are many factors that will figure into this decision, not the least of which is the dent these wave parks will create in commercial crabbing and fishing areas. Most of the questions from various stakeholders regarding economic inconvenience of varying degrees to other sea-based industries boil down to whether spread or concentrate the locations of wave parks.

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Wave Energy’s Big Splash

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

OREGON’S PIONEERING EFFORT

By Belinda Batten

The United States has a golden opportunity to become a recognized leader in wave energy technology. No one need look beyond national media for proof of progress, with stories like the first Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license issuance for a wave energy project, and the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC) opening its open-ocean test facility in Newport, Ore.

As someone who is closely connected to this effort, I hope we take advantage of this opportunity for what it could mean for our energy future and economic development prospects.

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy funded NNMREC as one of three university centers in Marine Renewable Energy. NNMREC, a partnership between Oregon State University and the University of Washington, has as its mission to advance wave and tidal energy technology. Faculty and students are at the forefront of research, education and testing that enable marine energy technology to grow. Their research closes gaps in understanding the technology, environmental and human dimension challenges, in addition to informing regulators of the impact of these devices when deployed in our oceans.

As the director of NNMREC, I see firsthand the impact of this team on the industry. For example, OSU has two premier wave tanks in which developers test their pilot-scale devices, at times cycling from one tank to another as they advance through development spirals. As device developers gain understanding of the technical performance of the devices, they transition to ocean testing.

Recently, NNMREC opened our open-ocean test facility in Newport, and the first wave energy device to be tested (WET-NZ) was installed. The WET-NZ is connected through an electrical umbilical cable to NNMREC’s Ocean Sentinel, a mobile ocean test buoy. Although the new test facility represents a big step forward for developers, devices are limited to 100 kilowatts average power produced, and this limit is problematic for more mature devices. So what do developers do?

Today, testing a utility-scale device, perhaps at 1 megawatt average power, in the most energetic wave resources available can best be completed at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney, UK. At EMEC, devices connect to the electrical grid and developers learn about the power being produced in various wave climates, as well as reliability and sustainability of their systems in Orkney’s highly energetic waves. This isn’t a simple option for U.S. developers, who must endure high transportation costs. And unfortunately for those who are willing to ship their devices, EMEC’s wave sites are contracted through the next five years.

To address these challenges, NNMREC is starting a U.S.-based EMEC companion: the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC). We are working with Oregon coastal communities on site selection and are seeking funding for facility development. Upon completion, PMEC will provide another important resource for developers to move their technology toward maturity, understanding not only the device operation but also the environmental impacts and social acceptance.

So, from my vantage point, the industry’s future is bright. But threats exist.

In the 1970s, the United States was a recognized leader in wind energy. Altamont Pass Wind Farm in northern California was a showcase of these experimental designs. The United States established the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo., as a wind energy test center. When tax incentives and research funding decreased dramatically in the United States in the 1980s, so did the U.S. wind energy industry. Denmark, which had also been active in this industry, took the lead. Today, our wind farms consist of devices that were developed under European investment, with turbines manufactured by companies such as Iberdrola, Vestas and Siemens.

Wave energy technology is much where wind was 30 to 40 years ago. There is no one device recognized as “the winner.” The best design will ultimately be decided based on cost of energy, a quantity defined by a complicated equation dependent upon materials and manufacturing costs, mooring and deployment costs, operation and maintenance costs, and energy produced. But these are just costs’ technical aspects. There are also environmental impacts and opportunity costs incurred.

Still, that does not capture the net cost, as arrays of these devices might have a positive benefit by acting as spawning areas for fish or crab. Moreover, there will be some devices best suited to onshore locations where waves break, some in shallow and others in deep water, some that require rocky ocean floors, and others deployed in sand.

If we fail to pursue wave energy development opportunities, we miss the new-industry economic benefits. The testing infrastructure and developer financing are necessary for industry growth, but jobs pair with investment as well. In Orkney, EMEC has produced an additional 221 jobs in 10 years. This is before any utility-scale manufacturing or development has taken place.

I’ve been asked if private investment is enough to move this industry forward. We know from our history with the wind industry that it is not.

We need federal investment in research to help developers push their devices through critical technology maturation development processes. Feed-in tariffs and power purchase agreements can help the wave energy industry like they have helped wind and solar.

It might seem easy to succumb to a growing opinion: Renewables are not that important while we have cheap and available natural gas. However, in order to have a seamless transition to the renewable energy portfolio that will replace fossil fuels, we need to invest today.

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PMEC Community Site Teams Information and Application

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

NNMREC, with assistance from Oregon Sea Grant, is recruiting local community members to serve on two community site teams, one in Reedsport and one in Newport. These communities are being considered by NNMREC as the site of the proposed Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC). Each team will provide information to be considered by NNMREC in making its final decision.

Click here for Community Site Team selection criteria and the application form.

Please email Kaety Hildenbrand if you don’t have time to serve on a Community Site Team but would like to receive periodic project updates.

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Wave Test Site Narrowed To Two Oregon Towns

Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
By Pete Danko

Possible sites for the Pacific Marine Energy Center – which aims to become the first grid-connected wave energy testing facility in the United States – have been narrowed from four Oregon communities to two, with Reedsport and Newport the finalists, according to officials at the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center.

The announcement comes just weeks after the Oregon State University-based researchers heralded the deployment of the Ocean Sentinel, a test buoy with no grid connection. That was a big step forward for U.S. wave energy, and for Oregon in its goal of building a thriving industry in the state. But in the long run, a grid-connected test facility similar to the European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland is considered a vital piece to the wave energy puzzle.

Wave energy device at European Marine Energy Centre (image via Aquamarine Power)

The planned Oregon center would have four berths, connected to the grid, where wave energy developers could plug in their devices for testing.

Officials leading the effort have said they’ll need $8 million to really get the project rolling – and more than that to build it – and are awaiting final approval of $4 million from the Department of Energy. The state-backed Oregon Wave Energy Trust is also a partner on the project, and the European center is playing a role, too.

WET-NZ Device tested off Oregon coast (image via Pete Danko/EarthTechling)

Key factors in choosing the two finalist were “distance to the ocean depth from shore, access to support services and onshore infrastructure, community support and overall costs,” officials said.

In the final round, the officials said they’ll weigh Newport’s strengths in infrastructure (including a nearby electrical substation), transportation and community support against Reedsport’s strengths of having deeper water nearer to shore and supportive community leaders.

Strong community support will likely be vital, whichever town is chosen, as officials navigate a tricky approval process. Concerns about wave power have been expressed by commercial and recreational fishing interests, environmentalists and coastal residents worried about ocean views being marred. At the same time, there’s widespread hope that wave energy could be jobs booster in Oregon.

The private company Ocean Power Technologies recently won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to place up to 10 grid-connected buoys in the Pacific near Reedsport. An important piece to the license granted was an agreement OPT had reached in 2010 with 11 federal and Oregon state agencies as well as three nongovernmental stakeholders .

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