THE PACIFIC ENERGY

Energy from the Pacific; Waves at Work
Guy Kovner, May 15, 2009 (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

SUMMARY
Projects to prove wave energy in one of its most likely U.S. locations, the coast of Northern California, are moving through the approval process with the familiar attendant controversy and excitement.

Sonoma County Water Agency wants to harvest wave energy and use it for part of the the 60 million kilowatt-hours of power it requires every year to pump Russian River water to customers from Windsor to southern Marin County. It has permits for 2 10-square-mile, 2-to-5 megawatt wave energy installations that could expand to 40 megawatts.

California utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the Water Agency and energy developer Green Wave Energy Solutions are involved in 7 of the 9 approved or pending-approval 3-year pilot projects. 4 permits have also been issued for Oregon and 2 for Washington.

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Green Wave has a permit for a 17-square mile, 100-megawatt installation and another pending.

So far, a confused regulatory environment that pitted the jurisdictional authority of the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Minerals and Management Service (MMS) against the authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has prevented wave energy progress. Resolving it was one of the first things on Obama-appointed Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's agenda. An agreement is now in place and development of pilot and test projects is expected to proceed.

A 5-megawatt PG&E trial project off Northern California may be the first proof of the concept. It could expand to 40 megawatts if the trial proves successful.

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Environmental impacts are of concern. Wave energy installations could create obstacles in vital whale migration routes. The electricity transmitted from the installations to onshore switching stations could create electromagnetic fields harmful to fish and marine mammals. Wave energy infrastructure could interfere with marine food chains. A small wave energy generator off a naval base in Hawaii is the only actual project in service and has exhibited no environmental harms.

The harsh ocean environment is another challenge. A utility-scale project off Portugal last fall failed to endure the ceaseless motion and corrosive elements and was towed back to shore.

Roger Bedard, who has led extensive research on the hydrokinetic energies for the Electric Power Research Institute, says wave energy is proven, 50 times denser than wind energy, its devices will cost less when they are being mass-produced and it is expected to be more productive on the Pacific Coast due to the near shore deeper waters off the short continental shelf.

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COMMENTARY
Wave energy is 1 of the hydrokinetic energies. The others are tidal energy and current energy.

The wave energy resource is especially rich on the U.S. Pacific coast because the continental shelf drops off relatively quickly, allowing the waves rolling across the ocean to hit with a fuller force.

Some authorities believe wave energy could provide as much as 10% of U.S. power. 10% of the potential wave energy available, they say, could match the output of current U.S. hydropower, which supplies 6% of U.S. electricity.

Wave energy is also attractive because it offers the potential for emission-free water-pumping of fresh water resources just as California is beginning to realize how short a supply of potable water the state has in comparison to the needs of its burgeoning population. Sonoma County required 2.8 billion kilowatt-hours in 2008 to pump water. Just 1 of the pilot 5-megawatt wave energy installations would generate ~40 million kilowatt-hours a year. Combined with the solar and hydroelectric power the water agency presently owns, wave energy would entirely eliminate its need for fossil fuel-generated electricity.

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The ability to generate power from waves on coastlines adjacent to large population centers also means less of a need for new, trans-regional transmission infrastructure.

The environmental impacts of the hydrokinetic energies are thought to be benign but are being carefully studied by groups concerned with marine and marine wildlife habitats (including fish, birds and mammals). Preliminary observations suggest wave energy installations would be at the very least far less impactful than offshore oil platforms.

The biggest environmental question - across the New Energy industries - is this: What is worse, the potential compromise to specific locations or the universal harm from global climate change?

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QUOTES
- David Eisenhauer, spokesman, PG&E: “We know there is potential out there…”
- Roger Bedard, ocean energy authority, EPRI: “It’s a huge indigenous resource…”
- Elizabeth Mitchell, former attorney, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: “This is insane what’s going on right now…[the same way FERC’s licensing of Pacific Northwest dams was a] regulatory disaster [for the region’s salmon]…”
- Richard Charter, environmentalist: “We may be the guinea pig for this technology…”
- Tim Anderson, spokesman, Sonoma County Water Agency: “Our goal is to be carbon-free by 2015…Waves might be the way.”