Oregon in race to become world leader in wave energy

[MarkDaMan]

Oregon faces setbacks in race to lead world in wave energy
As the U.S. and Canada vie to lead the globe in ocean power, success will depend on who can develop first commercial project, not who’s first in water
Daily Journal of Commerce
POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Friday, November 30, 2007
BY LIBBY TUCKER

Competition among coastal communities to lead North America in wave energy technology is picking up in the United States and Canada. Researchers and entrepreneurs in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Nova Scotia are among several regions diving in to set up the continent’s first commercial wave park.

Just as Vestas made Denmark a world leader in wind energy, states and provinces want to claim the world’s best wave energy company. Wave energy technology is still so young, with less than a decade of testing, that no region has yet emerged as a leader in the industry.

“We’re probably going to go head-to-head competing with Portland to be the home of the next Vestas in terms of wave energy,” Alison Scott, deputy minister of the Nova Scotia Department of Energy, said.

But, researchers warn, it’s not necessarily the first or the largest technology center that will become the world’s leader in wave technology.

“It’s not who’s first,” Gerald Sheble, a Portland State University engineering professor and renewable energy consultant, said. “It’s who has the first successful commercial project.”

In all, hundreds of prototypes that range from floating snakes and bobbing buoys to giant underwater turbines are in the works in various regions. But few have been tested for a commercial launch. And those already out to sea are only generating a few megawatts of electricity.

“Canada and the United States are pretty intense users of energy,” U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said. “We haven’t scratched the surface of what our two countries can do to squeeze more out of existing resources.”

Nova Scotia is looking to start a demonstration center for wave energy technology that would help harness the powerful waves in the Bay of Fundy, “one of the most rugged tidal regimes in the world,” Scott said.

Nova Scotia’s renewable energy standard that requires 20 percent of electricity production be met with renewable resources by 2013 is pushing technology development there, Scott said.

But the province has yet to launch a test project.

Oregon, too, is working to expand Oregon State University’s wave research to a national in-water wave energy research center where companies around the world can bring their technologies for testing. And the state already has two test devices in the water – Canada-based Finavera Renewables’ Aquabuoy and OSU’s wave energy buoy – with six more permit applications on file at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Finavera suffered a setback last month, however, when the Aquabuoy off the coast of Newport began leaking and sank to the ocean floor. And public perception of wave energy parks as threats to ocean life and fishers could set back the state, energy consultant Justin Klure said.

“Oregon needs to accelerate our efforts for community outreach and education,” Klure said, “so wave energy projects are seen as positive instead of a threat.”

Snohomish County Public Utility District, Seattle’s main power provider, has seven permits to study wave energy sites in Washington. The utility has more than 30 devices on the drawing board but hasn’t tested any of them, Jeffrey Kallstrom, an attorney with the utility, said.

Canada is working to make more commercial incentives available for startup wave energy companies to help bring pilot projects online. And British Columbia wants to launch a wave energy test center off Vancouver Island.

“Canada needs some demonstration projects,” Mary Jane Parks, chairwoman of Canada’s Ocean Renewable Energy Group board, said.

But even as the race for a stake in ocean power begins, energy officials from both countries talked this week of the need to collaborate on technology at an energy research and development conference in Portland held by the Canada consulate.

“The Pacific Coast is emerging as an international powerhouse in sustainable development,” Peter Lloyd, consulate general of Canada, said. Northwest states and provinces must share technology and practices, he said, because “climate change is a global issue that requires a global effort.”
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDeta...-lead-the-glob

[Pavlov's Dog]

Interesting.

I currently live in Norway where they've been researching wave power for decades without anything of commerical value coming to fruition.

An idea that does have a lot of merit that some serious money is looking at is floating windminds out in the ocean. They would use a lot of the same technologies as the well developed off-shore oil-rig technologies. Some of the drawings I've seen also have a turbine underwater to make use of currents to generate additional power. Having windmills well out at sea has the advantage of being less of an eyesore, very consistent winds and less disruptive to birds.

Hywind is a concept being developed by the national oil and gas company StatoilHydro which is among the 10 largest oil companies in the world.



The concept is a 80 m tall mast containing a windmill diameter of 90 m. It is estimated that a park of 200 such off-shore windmills will be able to produce enough power for 200,000 homes.

[Dr Nevergold]

Awesome news. Hopefully it can become a viable product in the Oregon market within the coming decade.