Nov 24 2008

The Tides Are Turning to Ocean Power

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Last Thursday, two dozen environmental groups, energy developers, public utilities and other stakeholders wrote President-elect Barak Obama about a remarkable collaboration to promote renewable energy powered by waves, tides, and ocean currents.

This initiative, spearheaded by the Environmental Defense Fund in the same spirit of common national purpose that Obama championed during his campaign, took nine months of work aimed at building trust and finding an environmentally responsible path toward developing this promising new source of clean power.

The participants included Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which is studying the potential of wave energy off the coast of Humboldt and Mendocino Counties as part of its commitment to renewable energy. (Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission rejected a PG&E contract with Finavera Renewables for a separate project that would have produced 2 megawatts of ocean wave power off the coast of Humboldt County, as not having a mature enough technology.)

Ocean renewable energy could supply as much as 10 percent of the nation's current electricity demand, about the same as conventional hydropower. Although ocean energy projects today produce only about 10 megawatts of power worldwide, a recent report by Greentech Media and the Prometheus Institute estimated that production could grow 100-fold by 2015.

Reaching that potential will take sustained cooperation between stakeholders at the local, state and national level. All too often, progress on renewable energy has been slowed by conflict between eager project developers and environmentalists who demand assurances that major new projects will not damage fragile habitats.

In the case of wave power, the Pacific Fishery Management Council's executive director, Donald McIsaac, raised questions in June about effects on marine fish, mammals, and commercial fishing. "A large number of projects could compromise healthy ecosystems, and should be evaluated at a regional ecosystem scale before projects are installed," McIsaac warned the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which issues wave power project leases.

To avoid legal and regulatory wrangling and facilitate the orderly development of ocean energy, the initiative backers call for systematic testing and deployment of demonstration projects to provide data that will help uncover and assess any environmental risks. They also call for federal funding and consolidated regulation to help accelerate those projects.

"Because this industry is new, we have an opportunity to do it right from the beginning," the participants wrote Obama. As their collaboration has demonstrated--and as Obama surely agrees--"people of good faith can work together to help create a sustainable energy future for America and the world."

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