First U.S. Tidal Power Project Launches in Maine

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First U.S. Tidal Power Project Launches in Maine

By Nathanael Greene, NRDC
July 24, 2012 | Post Your Comment


The ocean is a tremendous bank of energy. Covering more than two-thirds of our planet, the amount of energy embodied in the ocean's tides, currents, and waves, not to mention temperature and salinity gradients, could power the world—if we were able to commercialize the technology to harness its renewable power.



While technologies harnessing energy from tides and currents have been domestically discussed for decades, no project has ever reached commercial development, and been connected to the grid in the United States. In Eastport, Maine, however, that changed today with the launch of the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) TidGen Cobscook Bay tidal energy project. Harnessing the power of the massive tidal shifts in Cobscook Bay, an inlet connected to the much larger Bay of Fundy, the project is the first in the U.S. to receive a FERC license, negotiate a power purchase agreement, and install and operate a power-producing tidal generator.

As clean energy advocates, we are excited to highlight new, innovative projects that inject clean power and jobs into communities, deploy American ingenuity and know-how and utilize smart clean energy policies. The DOE invested $10 million in the project as part of its larger water power program that aims to better understand the environmental impacts that come with harnessing ocean energy, as well as refine, and make more cost-effective, the technologies that do so.

In addition to harnessing local sources of energy, the project apparently:
•Harnessed local knowledge and workers to plan the project. Understanding of Maine’s tidal flows and currents, and marine geology was critical in project planning and implementation, and 50 and 70 local workers, including local fisherman facing underemployment from declining fish stocks, as well as others with a Maine maritime background were hired to help complete the project.
•Sourced components from local manufacturers. Beyond the locals working to plan and construct the project, the turbines and generators were also New England-sourced. Bristol, Rhode Island-based Hall Spars, a former yacht mast manufacturing company, supplied the turbines, while Massachusetts-based Comprehensive Power made the generator.

First U.S. Tidal Power Project Launches in Maine | Renewable Energy News Article

If it doesn't hurt poor people in the wallet...Well, I can be for it.
 
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How desparate are these greenies to avoid nuclear power??

Enough to line the ocean floor with Cuisinarts and make tons of sushi.....

Open%20Hydro.jpg


Imagine what the reaction would be and the height of paperwork if I wanted to install giant slashing turbines in a pristine forest somewhere...
 
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Oregon gonna ride the wave of the future...
:clap2:
Oregon poised for wave energy
Sept. 7, 2012 - The United States' first commercially licensed grid-connected wave energy device is in its final stage of testing before its launch next month in Oregon.
The 40-foot-wide, 260-ton PowerBuoy, developed by New Jersey company Ocean Power Technologies, will extend more than 100 feet into the sea and rise another 30 feet from the surface, The Oregonian newspaper reports. Part of the buoy's structure is designed to move like a piston to generate the charge. From its anchorage site 2.5 miles offshore near Reedsport, Ore., the buoy will send electricity to shore via an ocean-bottom cable. ''Wave energy is essentially an accumulation of wind energy," Charles F. Dunleavy, chief executive of Ocean Power Technologies, told The New York Times, explaining that in the Northern Pacific, winds cause consistent waves and create a large area of wave energy, or fetch, for the massive buoy to capture.

Last month, OPT received a federal permit for the deployment of up to 10 wave energy devices, which the company says is enough to generate electricity for approximately 1,000 homes. Energy development groups around the globe are closely watching the progress of the Reedsport project because its outcome could affect the flow of private investment by bigger companies that have limited themselves to on-shore projects, the Times report says. ''Wave energy is very expensive to develop and they need to see that there is a potential worldwide," said Antonio Sarmento, a professor at Lisbon Technical University and the director of the Wave Energy Center, a private non-profit group in Portugal. "In that sense, having the first commercial deployment in the U.S. is very, very positive."

Dunleavy says that potential ideal locations for wave energy include areas off the coasts of Western Europe and South America. Separately, a $1.5 million wave energy testing system -- the Ocean Sentinel -- began operating off the coast of Oregon near Newport in August.

Developed by the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Oregon Department of Energy and the Oregon Wave Energy Trust, the Ocean Sentinel will provide a "standardized, accurate system to compare various wave energy technologies," says Sean Moran, ocean test facilities manager with NNMREC. An editorial in The Oregonian newspaper Friday states: "Wave power, after nearly a decade of dreaming and planning, seems ready to crest. Done right, it represents Oregon's best opportunity to deliver a needed new technology that could attract private investment and show profit while demonstrating that innovation and resource conservation are compatible."

Read more: Oregon poised for wave energy - UPI.com
 
There is all the energy that we need in nature. We can get it without polluting the Earth. Our technology has advanced to the point that all that is needed now is the will to cease polluting our home. Shitting in the living room is not a sign of an advanced culture.
 
There is all the energy that we need in nature. We can get it without polluting the Earth. Our technology has advanced to the point that all that is needed now is the will to cease polluting our home. Shitting in the living room is not a sign of an advanced culture.

Neither is waiting in an operating room for the wind to blow or the tide to come in..
 
The following chart is a multi-day chart of swell height at Diablo Canyon -- Cali coast near San Luis Obispo.. For wave conversion this and the period are the important numbers..

flacaltenn-albums-charts-picture4788-diabloswellht.jpg


Doc -- Keep the pressure on that Left Renal Artery -- I think the Electric light parade at Disney is almost over and there's a good swell set building at San Luis Obispo..

Advanced civilization my ass.....
 
Rocks wrote: Shitting in the living room is not a sign of an advanced culture.

Yea, but...

... ya got any idea how hard it is...

... to house-break a possum?
:eusa_shifty:
 
Tidal power potential better than wind in UK...
:cool:
UK tidal power has huge potential, say scientists
13 January 2013 - The UK is underestimating the amount of electricity that could be generated from tidal sources, new research says.
The analysis says that estuary barrages and tidal streams could provide more than 20% of the nation's demand for electricity. Despite high costs, experts say tidal power is more reliable than wind. The predictable nature of tides makes them an ideal renewable energy source, the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A reports. But finding effective ways of utilising their latent power have proved elusive.

Essentially, engineers try to tap tides in two ways: one involves building barrages across tidal estuaries that use the ebb and flow of the waters to turn turbines - a major project of this type had been proposed for the River Severn. The other method involves planting turbines underwater in fast flowing tidal streams in areas such as in coastal waters around Cornwall and Scotland.

_65235647_103355233.jpg

One of the world's biggest tidal energy turbines being prepared for deployment in Scotland

Smaller better

In the Royal Society report, researchers say they are "extremely optimistic" that both types of technology can be realised and relatively soon. "From tidal barrages you can reasonably expect you can get 15% of UK electricity needs, that's a very solid number," co-author Dr Nicholas Yates from the National Oceanography Centre told BBC News. "On top of that there is a 5% tidal stream figure, and with future technological development that is likely to be an underestimate in my view," he said. The massive Severn estuary tidal barrage scheme had been rejected by the coalition government because of its environmental impact, but ministers have indicated they are open to review the idea.

Despite his faith in the idea of barrages, Dr Yates, who carried out the research with colleagues at the University of Liverpool, says he is against building one across the Severn. "I think it's unfortunate that attention for tidal range has tended to focus on the Severn, it's the wrong place to start, it's too big," he said. "Start small, it's what the Danes did with wind - start small, learn quick and build up.". Developing power from offshore tidal streams is fraught with difficulty, as the BBC discovered when reporting on the emerging industry in Scotland last year.

Better than wind
 
First U.S. Tidal Power Project Launches in Maine

By Nathanael Greene, NRDC
July 24, 2012 | Post Your Comment


The ocean is a tremendous bank of energy. Covering more than two-thirds of our planet, the amount of energy embodied in the ocean's tides, currents, and waves, not to mention temperature and salinity gradients, could power the world—if we were able to commercialize the technology to harness its renewable power.



While technologies harnessing energy from tides and currents have been domestically discussed for decades, no project has ever reached commercial development, and been connected to the grid in the United States. In Eastport, Maine, however, that changed today with the launch of the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) TidGen Cobscook Bay tidal energy project. Harnessing the power of the massive tidal shifts in Cobscook Bay, an inlet connected to the much larger Bay of Fundy, the project is the first in the U.S. to receive a FERC license, negotiate a power purchase agreement, and install and operate a power-producing tidal generator.

As clean energy advocates, we are excited to highlight new, innovative projects that inject clean power and jobs into communities, deploy American ingenuity and know-how and utilize smart clean energy policies. The DOE invested $10 million in the project as part of its larger water power program that aims to better understand the environmental impacts that come with harnessing ocean energy, as well as refine, and make more cost-effective, the technologies that do so.

In addition to harnessing local sources of energy, the project apparently:
•Harnessed local knowledge and workers to plan the project. Understanding of Maine’s tidal flows and currents, and marine geology was critical in project planning and implementation, and 50 and 70 local workers, including local fisherman facing underemployment from declining fish stocks, as well as others with a Maine maritime background were hired to help complete the project.
•Sourced components from local manufacturers. Beyond the locals working to plan and construct the project, the turbines and generators were also New England-sourced. Bristol, Rhode Island-based Hall Spars, a former yacht mast manufacturing company, supplied the turbines, while Massachusetts-based Comprehensive Power made the generator.

First U.S. Tidal Power Project Launches in Maine | Renewable Energy News Article

If it doesn't hurt poor people in the wallet...Well, I can be for it.
It makes more sense in Maine than elsewhere in the States. It is reliable, in that it will generate a fairly constant amount of energy every day, regardless of clouds or wind speed, but the grid needs power all the time, even at high and low tides. Without a means of storing energy or using the power for a specific task, tide power isn't terribly efficient.
Fossil fuel generators will need to take up the slack when the tide isn't moving and they typically use about 75% of their normal fuel consumption running in standby mode.
 
Oh yeah, the worlds oceans hold the potential for "free" energy. Why not build a God ugly generating plant to divert the water in every estuary? Screw the plant and animal life that depend on tidal flow. Let them learn to live inside a gigantic turbine.
 
whitehall wrote: Oh yeah, the worlds oceans hold the potential for "free" energy. Why not build a God ugly generating plant to divert the water in every estuary? Screw the plant and animal life that depend on tidal flow. Let them learn to live inside a gigantic turbine.

Instant sushi gonna get ya.
:eusa_shifty:
 
`Bout time we got around to tidal power...
:cool:
Obama Administration Tapping the Ocean As An Energy Source
August 30, 2013 -- The U.S. Energy Department is spending $16 million in an attempt to harness energy from ocean waves and tides.
But just as wind turbines kill birds, wave- and tide-generated energy may harm fish. So more than half of the projects announced on Thursday -- nine out of 17 -- will examine environmental concerns, including how wave and tidal devices may affect fish and other marine life. The Obama administration believes that wave and tidal energy is a "large, untapped resource for the United States" and that "responsible development of this clean, renewable energy source is an important part of our all-of-the-above energy strategy,” said Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Danielson.

Of the $16 million total, $13.5 million is going to eight projects that aim to develop new and efficient drive-train, generator and structural components as well as software that predicts ocean conditions and adjusts device settings to capture the most energy possible. The taxpayer money is supposed to help companies find "affordable" ways to tap into the movement of large volumes of water and convert mechanical energy into electricity. Another $2.4 million is going to "responsible and sustainable energy development." This means fish and other marine life.

For example, the University of Maine at Orono will study the interaction of fish with turbines "to predict the probability of fish encountering marine and hydrokinetic devices." A company in Palo Alto, Calif., will measure how electromagnetic fields generated by undersea electricity transmission may affect marine species. Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, will "quantify the distribution, behavioral response, and general patterns of fish movement around an operating tidal energy turbine."

And the University of Washington in Seattle will study the "behavioral responses" of killer whales, harbor porpoises, and other marine mammals to the sounds produced by tidal turbines. A 2011 report by the Electrical Power Research Institute found that the total potential electric generation from ocean waves is approximately 1,170 terawatt-hours a year, which is almost one third of the 4,000 TWh of electricity used in the United States each year. "Developing just a small fraction of the available wave energy resource could allow for millions of American homes to be powered with this clean, reliable form of energy," the DOE says on its website.

Obama Administration Tapping the Ocean As An Energy Source | CNS News
 
There is all the energy that we need in nature. We can get it without polluting the Earth. Our technology has advanced to the point that all that is needed now is the will to cease polluting our home. Shitting in the living room is not a sign of an advanced culture.

No, you would rather disfigure our coastlines with thousands upon thousands of these wave power machines. Yeah, I'll bet the residents of Martha's Vinyard will appreciate having a few thousand of these in view of their million dollar homes. That's what I call "shitting in your living room."
 
There is all the energy that we need in nature. We can get it without polluting the Earth. Our technology has advanced to the point that all that is needed now is the will to cease polluting our home. Shitting in the living room is not a sign of an advanced culture.
Neither is turning off the lights you have, desperately hoping someone will invent a better light bulb.
 
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The ocean might be a tremendous source of natural power but you have to pollute the environment with unsightly buildings and engineering monstrosities and turbines and possibly alter natural currents and flow of waves. Ordinarily left wing environmentalists would be horrified at such a notion but they have modified their agenda to comply with the killing of migratory birds with windmills and now altering the natural beauty of the seashore in order to make a statement about energy.
 

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