the alternative energy business," said McGovern. Regulatory considerations for ocean energy installations are complex and nascent. Everyone from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to Minerals Management Service (MMS), to Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), to the office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and the Massachusetts Environmental Protection (MEP) has a role. The alphabet soup of federal and state regulatory agencies must weigh in. What's different here, though, is that there is very little known about what ocean renewable energy installations will look like in terms of topside visuals, lateral water space areas and land based receiving stations and maintenance and construction operations. Therefore, the regulatory authorities are playing catch up with the technology developers to devise permitting processes that preserve the public trust while enabling energy to be generated. Three commercial scale ocean power devices have been commissioned off the Scottish coast in the Orkney Islands to the far north. In 2008-2009 several additional systems that were in the prototype phase will be deployed to near and full scale. 2009 will be the Scottish Year of Ocean Power Deployment, and not a year too soon according to expert Andrew Mill, head of the New and Renewable Energy Center (NaREC). He warns the U.S. ocean power industry and developers not to be over optimistic about
the possibilities of ocean power generation. Be realistic, understand that the ocean is the boss, and tread carefully and ruggedly when developing systems. Mill has spent his career working within the United Kingdom developing the ocean energy industry from the seabed up. Finally, they are seeing the larger companies such as Rolls-Royce, and the larger utilities getting involved. Pelamis Wave Power (www.pelamiswave.com), has installed the first commercial wave power system in Portugal. Verdant Power (www.verdantpower.com), has installed tidal stream generators in the East River in New York. Hammerfest Strom UK, Ltd. (www.hammerfeststrom.co.uk), a Norwegian company is generating tidal power into the UK grid. We've got a lot to learn from our friends on the other side of the pond. Their political landscape is quite different from ours. The United Kingdom, for instance has demanded that 20% of their power be renewable by 2015. Without other resources such as oil, coal, gas or solar the UK's attention to ocean energy is a focus of many government initiatives to spur growth and technology development in the field. The U.S. has a "different" way of doing things from an energy point of view, to say the least. Maybe, just maybe there will be an incentive for the U.S. to jump on the ocean renewable energy fast track sooner rather than later.
Over 180 individuals from industry, academia, government and the public attended the October 6 Ocean Energy for New England Conference. (Photo Credit: UMass Dartmouth)
38 MTR
November/December 2008
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