JUNE 2007: FOCUS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY
Trouble at sea
With concerns surfacing over wave-energy projects, and the
beleaguered fishing industry worried about its future, a
green-energy payoff could be stalled.
By Abraham Hyatt
Now that the backslapping in Salem over this year’s
renewable energy bill has died down, here’s the real news
about wave energy: It’s going to be at least five years
before the state discovers which, if any, of the seven
much-touted wave energy projects are viable.
That’s not to say wave energy in Oregon won’t
happen. The technology has finally matured enough that
new projects around the world aren’t just testing ideas,
they’re laying the groundwork for large-scale energy
projects. With some of the world’s leading wave-energy
companies eager to build exploratory projects in Oregon, it may
be only a matter of time before the Pacific helps power the
state. In fact, the Irish company Finavera plans to install its
first buoy near Bandon this summer in collaboration with Oregon
State University.
But companies will have to answer a lot of questions before
they get to that point. Conservationists are asking if whales
will get tangled in the projects or if migration will be
affected.
Fishing and crabbing industry groups have the biggest question
of all: After surviving years of ever-tightening regulations,
are they being asked to cede dozens of square miles of what
they describe as prime fishing areas?
It’s unknown how many buoys ultimately will be in the
seven proposed parks (see chart, above) or how many square
miles all of them will occupy. Right now, the proposed buoy
count is up to 800. One project off Reedsport alone would
consist of 200 buoys — each would be 62 feet in diameter
and extend 26 feet above, and 102 feet below the surface of the
ocean — in a three-mile-long line.
It’s also unknown how much fish and crabs those areas
produce. Steve Bodnar, executive director of the Coos Bay
Trawlers’ Association, says a dollar amount must be
established through some type of study or analysis before
fishermen will feel comfortable with the projects.
“Is this going to cost our communities more than
they’re earning now?” he asks.
So far, despite their various concerns, everyone with
questions is working together to find answers. But Steve Kopf,
a consultant with Ocean Power Technologies, the company behind
the Reedsport project, says that support of the fishing
industry is vital in ensuring a streamlined permitting process
with the federal government. The industry may not be able to
kill a project, but they will force companies like Kopf’s
to “lawyer up,” as he put it.
And if some of the first, most promising projects are
sidetracked into a possibly years-long legal morass, what will
that do to the future of renewable energy off Oregon’s
shores?
Oregon’s wave-energy projects
|
|
NAME, LOCATION
|
SIZE
|
TOTAL CAPACITY
|
WHO'S BEHIND IT
|
STUDY PERMIT STATUS
|
|
Newport OPT Wave
Park, near Newport
|
200 buoys
|
100 megawatts
|
Ocean Power Technologies/local utility and government
agencies
|
Pending
|
|
Lincoln County Wave Energy
Project, near Newport
|
unknown
|
180 megawatts
|
Lincoln County
|
Pending
|
|
Florence Wave Park,
3 miles offshore
|
unknown
|
unknown
|
Oceanlinx
|
Pending
|
|
Reedsport OPT Wave
Park, 3 miles offshore
|
200 buoys
|
50 megawatts
|
Ocean Power Technologies/local utility and government
agencies
|
Approved Feb. 16
|
|
Douglas County Wave and
Tidal Energy Project, near mouth of Umpqua River
|
3 units
|
3,000 kilowatts
|
Douglas County
|
Approved April 6
|
|
Coos Bay OPT Wave Park
Project, 2½ miles offshore
|
200 buoys
|
100 megawatts
|
Ocean Power Technology/local utility and government
agencies
|
Approved March 9
|
|
Coos County Wave
Project, 2 miles south of Bandon
|
200 buoys
|
100 megawatts
|
Finavera Renewables
|
Approved April 30
|
MOST OF OREGON’S WAVES are born deep in the Pacific,
thousands of miles away.
Here’s how it works: As wind blows across the ocean,
energy is transferred into the water. It spins in a circular
motion in the direction of the wind. Over a long enough
distance the energy separates into long lines, or swells. Each
band of energy passes through the ocean without actually moving
the water — think of how a wood chip bobs up and down on
the surface of a pond after a pebble is thrown in and the
ripples expand.
Once those swells get close to shore, the shallow bottom
disrupts the circular movement of the energy and water as the
top of the swell plunges forward. Surfers harness the energy
released in that violent intersection to move across the face
of the breaking wave. Oregon’s wave energy farms,
however, will float several miles offshore. Like the wood chip,
they’d rise and fall with each passing swell, using that
movement to generate electricity.
It’s a simple principle, and one that’s taken
decades to perfect. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, scientists
in Scotland alone looked at hundreds of devices. In 1995, a $7
million project designed to power 2,000 homes for 25 years was
launched off the Scottish coast. It sank 20 days later. No
other projects that decade failed quite that spectacularly, but
neither did they make the kind of progress that generates
headlines.
In the last 10 years, however, wave-energy technology has
stopped sinking and is slowly learning to swim. Exploratory
projects have sprung up in Hawaii, Australia, Japan, the North
Sea and off the coast of Spain.
IN 2006, NEW JERSEY-BASED Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) was
generating electricity from two buoys: one off Atlantic City,
the other in Hawaii. Those are the same size buoys the company
will install three miles off the coast of Reedsport next year.
2008 will be a busy year for OPT; along with a wave park
it’s developing in Spain, the company hopes to install 13
more buoys — which likely will be built by
Clackamas-based Oregon Iron Works — off Reedsport. If
successful, they’ll pave the way for the 200-buoy
park.
But before OPT attempts to get a federal permit for those 13
buoys, it wants to get all parties to agree to work with the
company during the permitting process. If OPT can take that
agreement to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
it streamlines the process.
And with a strong emphasis on renewable energy this year from
both the governor’s office and the Legislature,
there’s an enormous amount of interest in OPT’s
permits. Oregon Solutions, a group created by the Legislature
and now a part of Portland State University, works as a
moderator of sorts in getting agencies and groups to work
together on sustainability projects. This past year it has
brought together nearly 40 state, federal, city, county and
public utility agencies, along with fishing, crabbing, surfing
and conservation groups to talk about OPT’s project.
This spring, group members aired a list of concerns: Will
whales get tangled in the three lines that connect each buoy to
the ocean floor? Will sharks be attracted to the
electromagnetic field that buoys create? Since wave parks will
decrease the size of the waves, how will that affect surfing or
how the beach normally erodes?
There seems to be a cautious optimism that these questions can
be answered. Which is good for OPT; it hopes to have that
agreement in hand by halfway through this month, and then a
permit filed in July. Work on finding solutions to any
questions or problems would begin this summer.
FERC spokesman Jim Hastreiter describes a permit application
without that tentative agreement as a “time bomb.”
That’s because when people are unhappy, they hire
lawyers. If there’s no agreement, it doesn’t change
how the agency processes the permit, he says, but “it
will take longer to defuse the bomb.”
SO WILL THERE BE A BOMB? In an April meeting with Oregon
Solutions members in Reedsport, OPT’s Kopf emphasized
that only one project is on the table at this point. He and
others repeatedly reminded the group that the first permit was
not tied to any other project. And most fishermen admitted that
the 14 buoys are needed before the viability of any wave park
is known.
But many fear it will also open the doors to an armada of wave
energy projects along the coast. That’s not the only
pressure the industry feels. Years of rising fuel prices and
constricting regulations have resulted in lost jobs and lower
profits. As work begins on statewide marine reserves, anxiety
has increased.
“They feel like everyone is chipping away at their
lives. The OPT project is not going to ruin anyone, but what
comes next?” says Onno Husing, executive director of the
Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association.
Fishing groups have suggested different options to offset any
economic impact to the fishing community, including some type
of compensation. But Husing says it’s still too early in
the process to say what any options would be. At this point,
all OPT wants is to go to FERC with a permit that other groups
say they’re willing to work on.
What will OPT do if there’s no agreement? Kopf sounds
genuinely sad when he answers: “We go back to the
traditional process where we all lawyer up. But what we really
want to do is work together.”
But for some, every question leads to a larger question: What
sacrifices will Oregon make in its quest for green energy? The
whole state could benefit from the projects. It’s not
just the governor who likes the color green; sustainable energy
fits into the Oregon Business Plan’s goals. But who will
lose their jobs? And what industries will be displaced?
“We don’t have all the answers,” Husing
says. “And if anyone claims they know how it’s
going to end up, they’re either delusional or
they’re lying to you.
Have an opinion? E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
