The moon’s gravitational pull causes ocean waters
to ebb and flow all along shorelines all over the world, in some locations more
than 20 feet every day. Now the force of all this moving water might actually be
harnessed to produce electric power on a commercial scale here in the United
States. Last week the Maine Public Utilities Commission set the terms for
contracts between Portland based Ocean Renewable Power Company and three Maine
utilities – Central Maine Power, Bangor Hydro Electric Company, and Maine
Public Service Company – for the purchase and sale of tide generated
electricity for the next 20 years. Ocean Renewable plans to install a
demonstration turbine in Cobscook Bay this summer, capable of providing enough
power for 20 to 25 homes.
Additional turbines offshore near Lubec and
Eastport should bring production up to 4 megawatts by 2016 – enough electricity
for more than a thousand homes. Maine regulators have set the rate to be paid
to Ocean Renewable for this power at a subsidized level of 21.5 cents per
kilowatt hour, nearly double the current rate paid by Maine citizens for traditionally
generated electricity. The tidal power rate will only be allowed to increase 2%
per year over the 20 year life of the term set by the Public Utilities
Commission, and it is expected to become competitive with traditionally
generated electric rates after five years or so, as fossil fuel prices escalate
at a much more vigorous pace.
Ocean Renewable’s turbines are shaped something
like an old fashioned reel type lawn mower mechanism, as they will sit on the
ocean bottom. Fundy Tidal of Nova Scotia plans installation of similarly shaped
turbines in the Bay of Fundy, where even greater tidal forces exist, if the
Ocean Renewable project is successful. Ocean Renewable already has a pilot
project license for its installation from the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. Another FERC pilot project license has been issued to Verdant Power
for an installation in the tidal basin of New York’s East River, using
different shaped underwater turbines that look more like the now familiar
windmills dotting the rural landscape across the Midwestern United States.
Ocean Renewable President and CEO Chris Sauer
describes his company’s initial installation as “A landmark in the
commercialization of tidal energy in the U.S.”
