wave power

A wave of interest in tidal and ocean power is building in cities and boardrooms along the West Coast.

Just last week, San Francisco and Australian energy company BioPower Systems announced plans to study the feasibility of an ocean energy project five miles off the city’s coast. Leaders of the proposed Oceanside Wave Energy Project say it could provide as much as 100 MW to the city’s power grid by 2012.

Closer to shore, city officials and energy companies have been exploring potential tidal power sites in San Francisco Bay, hoping to harness the powerful currents that run beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

A preliminary permit for the San Francisco Bay Tidal Energy Project — the largest proposed project of its kind off the California coast, with a potential generating capacity of 10-30 MW — is currently pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). If granted, the three-year permit would allow Golden Gate Energy Company first-priority access to conduct feasibility research on the designated site in the Bay.

The two projects are among several dozen proposed to capture tidal and ocean wave energy up and down the West Coast, including sites in Alaska, Washington and Oregon. New hydrokinetic projects have also popped up inland along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, said FERC spokesperson Celeste Miller.

Ocean power got knocked down the list of America's clean energy priorities when President Obama proposed slashing the research and development budget for the emerging technology by 25 percent, while giving solar, wind and geothermal a big lift.

The news elicited an adverse reaction from ocean power advocates, especially those in the Northwest, where waves and tides are seen as a more promising clean power source than offshore wind.

Their gripe? The feds are picking winners and losers from the green energy spectrum far too soon. From an editorial in the Seattle-Tacoma News Tribune:

Now’s not the time to back away from it. ... Ocean power may lag other renewable energy sources in its development, but that should be all the more reason for the federal government to help underwrite exploration of its promise.

There is no denying that ocean energy is a potentially huge source of clean power.