OCEAN ENERGY R&D CUT WHILE SUN, WIND, GEOTHERMAL R&D GET BOOSTS

Obama seeks funding cuts for wave, tidal energy research
Les Blumenthal, May 31, 2009 (McClatchy Newspapers via Kansas City Star)

SUMMARY
Wave and tidal energy backers in the Pacific Northwest are gearing up for a lobbying effort in response to research and development funding cuts in the Obama administration’s most recent budget.

Solar energy R&D got an 82% boost, wind power R&D got a 36% boost and geothermal energy got a 14% increase in R&D funding but wave and tidal energies were reduced 25% from $40 million to $30 million.

In addition, none of the $16.8 billion stimulus bill money assigned for New Energy and Energy Efficiency will go to wave and tidal power.

The Pacific Northwest has the richest wave and tidal assets anywhere in the continental U.S. and when the technologies to harvest them are more developed it could get a significant portion of its power from its coastal resources. Assessments by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and others have shown the U.S. could obtain as much as 10% of its power from wave and tidal energies

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The reduction came as a particular surprise because Obama Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has been working aggressively since his confirmation to finalize regulatory policy for offshore energies.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the reduced funding for wave and tidal R&D still represents 10 times more than what was available during the Bush administration years and, because regulatory impediments to licensing of pilot projects has been cleared away, private developers can be expected to carry research forward until the competing technologies sort themselves out.

Example: Puget Sound tidal energy pilot project proposals have attracted national and international attention.

Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) has begun pushing the administration to reconsider.

Pacific Northwest utilities view the decision as shortsighted. Their actions, and other factors, suggest the administration’s decision may be an insightful way to allocate limited resources.

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Washington state, Oregon and Northern California utilities are all governed by state Renewable Electricity Standards (RESs) requiring them to obtain significant portions of their power from New Energy sources in the foreseeable future. These RESs will likely drive investment in such a ready and potent asset.

While the states have already been investing in the more mature technologies of solar and wind, the attraction to the utilities, private companies and others of wave and tidal energies’ non-intermittent potency so close to populous load centers can be counted on to attract research and development investment.

The U.S. Navy, pressured by Congress to obtain 25% its power from New Energy sources by 2025, will build a pilot tidal project in Puget Sound in 2010.

The Snohomish Public Utility District (PUD) plans a 1-megawatt, 3-generator tidal pilot plant on the Puget Sound seabed for 2011.

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COMMENTARY
One estimate of wave and tidal energies’ potential suggested that harvesting just 0.2% of the oceans’ full power could generate enough electricity for the entire world

Small tidal and wave energy pilot projects have been considered, planned or installed in New York's East River, in Maine, Alaska, Hawaii and off Atlantic City, N.J., but nothing yet has been done at utility scale.

In Europe, projects have been considered, planned or installed in Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Ireland and Norway. There are major study centers in off Cornwall in Southern England, off the Hebrides Islands in Western Scotland and off the Atlantic coast of Portugal. The first utility scale wave energy project was tested last fall off Portugal.

Projects have also been considered off South Korea, the Philippines, India and Canada's Maritime provinces.

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The administration’s stimulus and FY2010 budget bills both are big on investment in cutting-edge research, the development and deployment of New Energy, and incentives to spur private sector R&D. The stimulus bill has $39 billion in energy investments at DOE and $20 billion in New Energy tax incentives.

The spending includes (1) the creation of an advanced research agency for energy, DARPA-E, modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which developed the Internet; (2) funding of Energy Frontier Research Centers to push breakthroughs in energy storage, very high-efficiency engines, and solar cells as cheap as paint; (3) funding for U.S. manufacturing of advanced batteries for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), New Energy storage and other applications; and (4) $1.2 billon for infrastructure to expand capacity at DOE national research labs.

The budget proposes ~$75 billion to make the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit permanent. This would boost private-sector R&D spending by some 11,000+ small, medium and large firms. Research shows that a tax credit of $1 produces an additional $1 in private R&D spending in the short run and an additional $2 in the long run. For every $1 spent on R&D, there are $2 in economic benefits. 2/3 of that is in salaries for researchers.

Given the enormous progress wave and tidal energies are making in Europe and around the world, and given the administration’s big commitment to R&D, it is hard to imagine there won’t be a lot more incentives coming for the ocean energies of the Pacific Northwest as the Obama administration’s agency officers settle in, as its economic recovery takes hold and as the pilot projects just now getting under way prove themselves.

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QUOTES
- Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash): "Wave and tidal power holds great promise in helping to meet America's long-term energy needs…It's time for the Department of Energy to focus on this potential. But playing budget games won't get the work done."
- Tom Welch, spokesman, DOE: "The trend line is up…The department is collaborating with industry, regulators and other stakeholders to develop water resources, including conventional hydro."
- Steve Klein, general manager, Snohomish County, Wash., Public Utility District: "We need all the tools in the tool belt…It's dangerous to anoint certain sources and ignore others…A lot of people are watching us…"
- Charles Brandt, director, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory marine sciences lab: "The potential is significant and (tidal and wave) could accomplish a large fraction of the renewable energy portfolio for the state…"