Page 18: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2015)

LEGAL BEAT

Riding Waves & Tides to a Cleaner Energy Future

BY JOAN BONDAREFF hen one thinks of offshore ocean thermal resources is estimat- one-half of its energy from renewable ported by a total of $10 million in fund- renewable energy, one usu- ed at 576 TWh/year in U.S. coastal sources by the year 2020. (http://www. ing from DoE in 2014, include an Ocean

Wally thinks of offshore wind. waters, including all 50 states, washington.edu/news/2014/10/24/u- Energy Buoy developed by Ocean En-

For the ? rst time progress is being made Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. s-navy-awards-8-million-to-develop- ergy USA of Sacramento, CA. (http:// in the U.S. to develop offshore wind re- wave-tidal-energy-technology/). energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-depart- sources. The ? rst steel foundation jacket With support from the federal and In July 2015, the Of? ce of Energy ment-announces-10-million-full-scale- has been placed in the ocean ? oor to state governments and industry, these Ef? ciency & Renewable Energy of the wave-energy-device-testing). support the Deepwater Wind project off resources could provide an excellent DoE announced that a prototype wave Just last month, DoE awarded an addi- the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. source of renewable energy for genera- energy device, called Azura, developed tional $7.4 million to develop advanced (See www.dwwind.com/press/#/1). But tions to come. by Northwest Energy Innovations of components for wave and tidal energy recently, progress is also being made in Portland, Oregon, has advanced suc- systems, including awards to Virginia the development of tidal and wave en- Funding Availability, Projects, and cessfully from initial concept to grid- Tech and Penn State University. The pur- ergy resources closer to shore, which are Permitting of MHK Resources connected, open-sea pilot testing. Azura pose of the funding is to help improve known as marine hydrokinetic or MHK Funding to support the development was recently launched and installed in a the performance and reduce the cost of resources. MHK projects generate elec- of MHK technology is available from 30-meter test berth at the Navy’s Wave MHK technologies. (http://energy.gov/ tricity from waves or directly from the both DoE and the Navy, and the two Energy Test Site in Hawaii. The test eere/articles/energy-department-awards- ? ow of water in ocean currents, tides, or agencies often combine their resources will allow researchers at the University 74-million-develop-advanced-com- inland waterways. Ocean thermal ener- to promote this new energy resource. of Hawaii to evaluate the long-term per- ponents-wave-and-tidal-energy.) gy is also part of the MHK equation but The Navy has its own test site for wave formance of the nation’s ? rst grid-con- If a MHK project is located in state has not been actively pursued in recent energy in Kaneohe Bay on the island nected wave energy converter device. waters, permitting is provided by the years. of Oahu, Hawaii. Last year, the Navy The device will also be feeding renew- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission awarded $8 million to the University of able electricity to Marine Corps Base (FERC). FERC’s authority to regulate

MHK Potential Washington to develop marine renew- Hawaii. (http://energy.gov.eere/articles/ MHK projects in state waters is derived

The Department of Energy (DoE) has able energy for use at the Navy’s facili- innovative-wave-power-device-starts- from Part I of the Federal Power Act (16 reported the following available MHK ties worldwide. This is intended to help producing-clean-power-Hawaii/). U.S.C. 791a et seq.). A user-friendly resources close to the U.S. coastline: the Navy meet its commitment to get Other wave energy device tests, sup- guide to FERC’s licensing procedures is available at: www.ferc.gov/industries/

The European Way 1.) The technically recover- hydropower/gen-info/licensing/hydroki-

The Meygen tidal able resource for electric genera- netics.asp. MHK development in feder- stream energy project tion from waves is approximately al waters is regulated by the Department is currently under con- 1,170 terawatt-hours (TWh) per of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy struction off the coast year which is almost one-third of Management (BOEM), but no projects of Scotland. By the the 4,000 TWh of electricity used in have yet emerged in federal waters.

early 2020s, MeyGen

Limited intends to de- the U.S. each year. Approximately As of July 10, 2015, FERC had issued ploy up to 398MW of 85,000 homes can be powered by 1 eight preliminary permits – two tidal, offshore tidal stream

TWh/year. three wave and four inland MHK proj- turbines to supply ects; four licenses for tidal pilot projects; clean and renewable 2.) The technical resource po- and four projects were in the pre-? ling electricity to the UK tential for tidal generation is esti- stage. The eight preliminary permits in-

National Grid. mated to be 250 TWh/year. Alaska clude two projects in the Niagara River; has the most locations with high three in Alaska (Kvichak River, Cook In- kinetic power density, followed by let, and the Gulf of Alaska); two in Mor-

Maine, Washington, Oregon, Cali- ro Bay, CA; and one in Ft. Pierce Inlet, fornia, New Hampshire, Massachu- FL. The fully licensed projects include setts, New York, New Jersey, North Verdant Power’s tidal project in the East

Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, River, NY; a project in Admiralty Inlet, and Florida. Puget Sound, WA; ORPC Maine’s tidal project in Cobscook Bay, ME; and Whit- 3.) The technical resource po- estone Power’s tidal project in the Ta- tential for electric generation from nana River, Alaska. (Credit: Atlantis Resources Ltd.) 18 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • SEPTEMBER 2015

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