PALO ALTO, Calif.—Technology for tapping ocean waves, tides and rivers for electricity is far from commercial viability and lagging well behind wind, solar and other fledgling power sectors, a panel of experts said last week during a forum here on climate change and marine ecosystems.

While the potential for marine energy is great, ocean wave and tidal energy projects are still winding their way through an early research and development phase, these experts said.

"It's basically not commercially financeable yet," said Edwin Feo, a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, during a conference at Stanford University. "They are still a long ways from getting access to the capital and being deployed, because they are simply immature technologies."

Wave and tidal energy are renewable sources that can be used to meet California's renewable portfolio standard of 10 percent of electricity by 2010. But the industry has been hampered by uncertainty about environmental effects, poor economics, jurisdictional tieups and scattered progress for a handful of entrepreneurs.

Finavera Renewables, based in British Columbia, recently canceled all of its wave projects, bringing to a close what was the first permit for wave power from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. And last fall, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) denied Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s application for a power purchase agreement with Finavera Renewables, citing the technology's immaturity.

Roger Bedard, head of the Electric Power Research Institute's wave power research unit, said the United States is at least five and maybe 10 years away from the first commercial project in marine waters. A buoy at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii is the only wave-powered device that has been connected to the power grid so far in the United States. The first pilot tidal project, in New York's East River, took five years to get a permit from FERC.

Feo, who handles renewable energy project financing at his law firm, says more than 80 ocean, tidal and river technologies are being tested by start-ups that do not have much access to capital or guarantee of long-term access to their resource. That has translated into little interest from the investment community.

"Most of these companies are start-ups," Feo said. "From a project perspective, that doesn't work. People who put money into projects expect long-term returns."

William Douros of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expressed similar concerns and said agency officials have been trying to sort through early jurisdictional disputes and the development of some technologies that would "take up a lot of space on the sea floor."

"You would think offshore wave energy projects are a given," Douros said. "And yet, from our perspective, from within our agency, there are still a lot of questions."

'Really exciting times'

But the belief in marine energy is there in some quarters, prompting the Interior Department to clear up jurisdictional disputes with FERC for projects outside 3 miles from state waters. Under an agreement announced last week, Interior will issue leases for offshore wave and current energy development, while FREC will license the projects.

The agreement gives Interior's Minerals Management Service exclusive jurisdiction over the production, transportation or transmission of energy from offshore wind and solar projects. MMS and FERC will share responsibilities for hydrokinetic projects, such as wave, tidal and ocean current.

5 Comments

1. 1. Alexsolarbotanic 07:48 AM 4/15/09

   I believe many new technologies will try to capture the energy generated by the waves. An idea that is currently under development by Solar botanic is promising to be a solution.
   Floating Energy CarpetsTM a combination of artificial Kelp and other algae that converts solar radiation and wave motion into clean energy, with incorporation of the latest nanotechnology. No moving parts, non toxic, easy to set out (like fishing nets from a trawler). These floating carpets can easily cover several square kilometers of ocean.
   www.solarbotanic.com

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2. 2. granitet 03:40 PM 4/15/09

   Ocean Power Technologies has had a buoy off the coast of New Jersey now since 2005. I believe that it is connected to the grid, but I do not know any of the production numbers. It is rated as a 40kw buoy.

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3. 3. choppam 05:05 AM 4/16/09

   Funny how some technologies get immediate long-term government subsidies regardless of maturity, safety, or environmental risks (eg. nuclear), but others with massive in-your-face potential (eg. hydrokinetics) can hardly get any funding at all, federal or private, short or long-term.
   
   Makes you think...

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4. 4. Bops 01:17 AM 3/17/10

   Tell government how you want your tax dollars spent and how it should be accounted for!
   
   White House at 202-456-1414
   Steven Chu, the new head of the DOE at 1-202-586-5000
   CNN and demand an expose at 800-CNN-NEWS
   
   We can call and e-mail...can't hurt.
   
   Please forward to your friends.
   
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

5. 5. Bops 01:17 AM 3/17/10

   Tell government how you want your tax dollars spent and how it should be accounted for!
   
   White House at 202-456-1414
   Steven Chu, the new head of the DOE at 1-202-586-5000
   CNN and demand an expose at 800-CNN-NEWS
   
   We can call and e-mail...can't hurt.
   
   Please forward to your friends.
   
   

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this