The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held meetings in Portland last week on its proposed fast-track licensing process for hydrokinetic pilot projects. FERC currently has no system in place to govern the new technology, which utilizes the tidal motions of the ocean to generate power.
According to its July proposal, FERC wants to implement a system by which developers could receive five-year licenses in as few as six months. By comparison, FERC often takes three years to review traditional hydropower projects before granting a license of up to 50 years. The fast-track licensing for tidal power is meant to encourage developers to experiment with technologies and sitings, and the short license period would reduce the potential for environmental damage.
But some suggest there are significant downsides to the program. The two main concerns are that the short review period leaves projects vulnerable to lawsuits and the short licensing period doesn’t encourage significant investment in the young technology, which may take longer than five years to reach levels of profitability.
Tidal/ wave energy has tremendous potential according to experts, but the industry is still in its infancy stage, awaiting the development of proven designs. Estimates suggest wave power could supply anywhere from 10 to 20% of the nation’s energy needs. The technology is especially promising in the Pacific Northwest where state mandates call for increasing amounts of renewable energies in the near future and wave conditions are consistently strong due to prevailing winds and the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
Researchers are racing to develop and test designs that range from underwater sails to snake-like wave-riders to tethered buoys, all in the hopes of capitalizing on this carbon-free energy. The first wave-energy buoy was anchored off the coast of Oregon last month, and Oregon State University (OSU), the country’s top research center for wave power, is building a national wave-energy research and demonstration facility to assist private and public research, which is in full swing, as evidenced by the nearly 20 applications FERC has received for test projects of the coasts of Oregon and Washington.
In the not-to-distant future, “wave-parks,” located one to three miles of the coast, could deliver electric power to thousands of homes via underwater cables. OSU engineering professor Annette von Jouanne says an array of buoys spread over a few square miles could generate enough power for 30,000 homes, the equivalent of 50 megawatts.
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