Energy from the Pacific
Waves at work
Guy Kovner
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat
05/15/2009
Power generated by Pacific Ocean waves could help pump drinking water to 600,000 North Bay customers without generating any greenhouse gases.
The proposal by the Sonoma County Water Agency is part of a national movement to tap “hydrokinetic energy,” converting the restless ocean’s waves to electricity for homes, businesses and utilities.
Wave power advocates are touting the possibility of producing as much as 6 percent of the nation’s power from the ocean and are targeting the North Coast as a potential proving ground for the new technology.
PG&E could wind up putting the world’s first array of wave power generators, known as a wave farm, in the ocean off Eureka.
PG&E is holding hearings Tuesday in Eureka and Thursday in Fort Bragg on its plans for wave power generation.
Environmentalists who have fought for nearly 30 years to keep oil rigs from sprouting off the coast are cautiously assessing the move to harness waves, a renewable and “carbon-free” energy source that would not contribute to global warming.
But critics say wave power technology is unproven, the government’s regulatory process is chaotic and migrating gray whales could be among the environmental victims.
PG&E, the county Water Agency and Green Wave Energy Solutions of Thousand Oaks are backing seven of the nine California wave power projects that have permits approved or pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Permits have also been issued for four projects in Oregon and two in Washington.
The Water Agency wants to put wave machines in three areas along the Sonoma County coast — two off Fort Ross and Jenner and a third off Sea Ranch. Each area covers 10 to 15 square miles, extending from a half mile to about three miles offshore.
PG&E obtained permits last year to assess wave energy potential off Fort Bragg and Eureka, but is scrapping the Fort Bragg project.
Engineering studies determined Noyo Harbor was too narrow to serve as a base of operations for the Fort Bragg project, a PG&E official said.
Green Wave secured a permit on May 1 for a proposed 17-square-mile wave farm from a half mile to 2.6 miles offshore from the town of Mendocino.
Green Wave also is seeking a permit for a project off San Luis Obispo County.
There is no timetable for the North Coast projects to move from the drawing board to the ocean, but they are in the forefront of exploring an alternative energy source that President Barack Obama favors and environmentalists are closely following.
“We know there is potential out there,” PG&E spokesman David Eisenhauer said.
“It’s a huge indigenous resource,” said Roger Bedard, ocean energy leader with the Electric Power Research Institute of Palo Alto, an industry group.
By tapping just 15 percent of the available ocean wave power, the United States could generate as much electricity as all existing hydropower dams — about 6 percent of the nation’s consumption, Bedard said.
California, with a west-facing coastline from Point Conception north that is dotted with ports and power-hungry cities, is a wave energy paradise, he said. The Sonoma and Mendocino coasts are “fantastically well-suited” to wave power development, Bedard said.
Richard Charter, a Bodega Bay environmentalist and anti-oil campaign veteran, sees the prospect of low-profile wave machines as “way ahead of” towering oil rigs that threaten eco-disaster.
There are environmental concerns to be considered, such as migrating gray whales becoming entangled in wave machine cables, Charter said. Other concerns include potential effect of electromagnetic fields on fish and marine mammals and interruption of the oceanic food chain.
But any potential harm, Charter said, must be weighed against producing carbon-free electricity, the “holy grail” of energy production on a warming planet.
Bedard said there is a single wave machine in Hawaii and others around the world, but no multi-unit wave farm anywhere since an array off Portugal was pulled out of the water after the operator went broke.
The wave power concept is proven, Bedard said, noting the “power density” of water is 50 times greater than wind, enabling wave generators to be smaller, lighter and cheaper than windmills.
But until a wave array goes into service, there is no way to assess its reliability, economic viability or environmental impact, he said. PG&E’s Eureka project may be the world’s first wave farm, Bedard said.
Elizabeth Mitchell of Fort Bragg, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration attorney, warned that not only is the technology unproven, but the federal permitting process is flawed.
In granting the Green Wave permit off Mendocino, the federal energy commission rejected arguments that it should develop a comprehensive plan for wave power, rather than approving projects on a case-by-case basis.
“This is insane what’s going on right now,” Mitchell said, contending FERC’s licensing of Pacific Northwest dams was a “regulatory disaster” for the region’s salmon.
Mitchell also noted FERC has asserted authority over wave power development, while the Interior Department regulates offshore wind and oil projects.
PG&E, which obtained $6 million in funding for its wave projects, intends to pursue the Eureka project and apply for a license in early 2010, Eisenhauer said.
A permit enables a prospective wave power developer to study the potential of a specific area for three years. FERC must issue a license, after thorough review, before anything can be built on land or in the ocean, spokeswoman Celeste Miller said.
At Eureka, PG&E plans to start small, with a handful of wave generators producing about five megawatts of power, enough for about 3,750 homes, Eisenhauer said. If it proves successful, the project could ramp up to 40 megawatts, he said.
Green Wave’s application said it intends to install 100 megwatts of capacity off Mendocino.
The county Water Agency is awaiting commission action on its bid to study the three areas north of the Russian River at Jenner. A 60-day comment period on the Water Agency’s permit application is under way.
If its plans pan out, the Water Agency would start with two to five megawatts of wave power at each site, possibly expanding to 40 megawatts at each, agency spokesman Tim Anderson said.
A voracious power user, the Water Agency needs up to 60 million kilowatt-hours of power a year to pump Russian River water to customers from Windsor to southern Marin County. The entire county consumed 2.8 billion kilowatt-hours last year.
A five-megawatt wave power facility would generate about 40 million kilowatt-hours a year, Anderson said. Combined with the solar and hydroelectric power it already taps, that could eliminate the Water Agency’s use of fossil fuel-generated electricity, Anderson said.
“Our goal is to be carbon-free by 2015,” he said. “Waves might be the way.”
