TIDE ENERGY REGS

What is a better indication a technology is approaching maturity than federal regulations and battles over them? (Also, see TIDE ENERGY IN NOVA SCOTIA and BIG OIL BUYS BIG WAVES)

Tidal Energy Turf War
Amy Quinton, July 16, 2007 (New Hampshire Public Radio)

WHO
Wave-Tide-Current (WTC) energy producers (Verdant Power, Trey Taylor, President; Charles Cooper, permitting agent, Oceana Energy;) Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Robert Cupina, Deputy Director; Rob Sinq-Mars, electrical engineer-WTC energy advocate-FERC opponent;
Drawing of Verdant Power's turbine, now being used in New York City's East River. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
FERC has issued 57 WTC energy 3-year research/study permits and 16 are pending. From these projects will come parameters for federal licensing of future projects. Some complain the permiting process was flawed and will lead to flawed federal regulation.

WHEN
- 2004: FERC gave companies 3-year permits to study WTC energy and set license parameters.
- 2007: Time to start licensing and regulating.

WHERE
At rivers, lakes and ocean coasts all over the U.S.

WHY
- The permited projects may double U.S. WTC energy. The permit/license process was used by FERC for federal dams.
- Oceana Energy has 11 permitted study sites but strongly opposes the FERC process and says not all the permit sites will be developed.
- The permits are not transferable but are credentials with which the company can raise funding: Oceana just got a $1.8 million investment from the deep pockets of California Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the city of San Francisco for a study project in the San Francisco Bay.
- FERC is studying the studies and will tighten and refine the regulatory process.
Drawing of TidalStream system presently being tested in the UK's Thames River. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Cupina: “…some of the original requests were pretty broad in terms of entire coastlines, entire counties, we realize we have to be adaptable because this is different, but we still have to have some reasonable scope to it…”
- Taylor: “…there were a lot of people that came out of the wood work that started throwing permits around like a land grab on those sites with a hope that a technology that they’re working on might work…it would be better to know how their technology worked and performed before you start filing permits…”
- Sinq-Mars: “Anyone could request a permit with a very high likelihood of receiving one…I don’t think it’s a very responsible thing to do because you’re tying up valuable resources for three years…people aren’t saying what they’re going to put in the water, they aren’t saying if they have any experience…”
- Cooper: “…what a company like Oceana who wants to make it in this business has to do is have enough sites so at least some of them will work, they all have different constraints…in terms of limited depths…harsh environmental conditions…”