Growth of Hydrokinetic (current, wave and tidal) Projects
By Rich Bowers, Pacific Northwest Coordinator
Rich@hydroreform.org [1]
The goal of developing new, clean and renewable energy from the power of the ocean and river currents has been a long–sought goal for both energy developers and environmental groups. This new technology has been getting a lot of scrutiny over the past twelve months, but the issue has skyrocketed as we close in on the end of 2007.
Currently, there are some 88 pending and issued hydrokinetic permits before FERC, and an equal number of pending permits for in-river projects. A good number of these permits were applied for just after the FERC hosted October 2nd Hydrokinetic Technical Conference held in Portland, OR, and most of the early in-channel projects were proposed to be located in the Mississippi River Delta, although there are pending permits on the Housatonic (CT), St. Croix and Penobscot (ME) and the Columbia (OR).
The Hydropower Reform Coalition is especially interested with the development of in-channel hydrokinetic projects, although we are also willing to share our FERC and coalition building expertise with ocean and tidal organizations, agencies and other stakeholders.
On December 14th FERC sent notice of their acceptance of application (and call for intervention) for a number of hydrokinetic projects on rivers in Alaska, including the Yukon, Kobuk, Tanana, and Kuskok Rivers (FERC Project Nos. 12870, 12871, 12872, 12877, 12878, 12881). All of these are in-stream, non-dam, non-impoundment projects situated in northern Alaska (SE Fairbanks to the Yukon). Each project ranges from a proposed 50 to 100 turbines, and all are in the 5MW range. All permits are from Hydro Green Energy, which also has submitted preliminary permits on the Mississippi.
In October 2007, and just preceding the Portland Technical Conference, FERC issued a whitepaper on hydrokinetic energy. Many organizations and agencies, including the HRC, supplied comments on this whitepaper. On November 30th FERC issued its Policy Statement on Conditioned Licenses for Hydrokinetic Projects [2] (Docket No. PL08-1-000) which made no changes to the whitepaper and recognized none of the concerns and comments supplied by a wide range of interested parties.
While there is great interest in developing this emerging technology, there is also a shared concern by all parties (including developers) over the potential impacts that any new technology will have on natural resources. The one lesson learned (though wind, solar and other) is that all power generation has some impact on the environment!
Unfortunately, FERC seems so focused on developing this technology that they have ignored both potential impacts and the request by many stakeholders to address these potential concerns in advance. In a statement released on December 20th, FERC said that “The Commission’s review of those potential impacts has been thorough, none have been neglected, and we have not permitted the benefits of the project to obscure the need for the utmost regard for a unique ecosystem.” However, the Policy Statement does not define such basic issues such as what constitutes a “sensitive area” or what impacts would lead to shut down or removal of a project.
On December 20th, FERC issued its first license for a hydrokinetic project to Finavera Renewables for the Makah Bay Wave Energy pilot project located off the coast of Washington (P-12751-000). You can read more on this license through the FERC news release [3] or Commissioner Kelly’s comments [4]. On December 18th, Pacific Gas & Electric announced the first ever commercial agreement to purchase power generated from Ocean-Wave energy through a contract with Finavera for a 2 megawatt project just off the coast of Eureka, CA.