Electric Power From the Ocean? ; Old Orchard Beach May Be a Test Site for Turning Waves into Electricity, but Studies Are Preliminary
Jul 27 - Portland Press Herald
Old Orchard Beach could host a $4 million pilot project that would harness the energy of ocean waves and turn it into electricity.
The Electricity Innovation Institute and the Electric Power Research
Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., recently completed a study that examined coastal
communities in Maine, Hawaii, Washington and Oregon to see which towns would be
the best fit for a wave-energy project.
In Maine, the conclusion was that the wave-energy devices could be built in
Portland, then installed and connected to the power grid in the waters off Old
Orchard Beach. The town was chosen because there is a substation located close
to shore and a plan in place to upgrade the power distribution system.
James Atwell, a board member of the Maine Technology Institute, which
provided a $60,000 grant for the project, emphasized that the choice was based
on "a very early-stage feasibility study."
"Before any project were constructed, there would be the need for public
involvement and some kind of permitting," he said. "You'd need to get
the fisheries people involved."
Wind power has been getting a lot of attention in Maine, thanks to a wind
farm planned for Mars Hill and another proposed for the western mountains. But
just as wind power seems to be gaining some momentum nationally, ocean energy
projects are now on the horizon, says Roger Bedard of the Electricity Innovation
Institute.
The technology for wave energy plants still lags about 15 years behind wind
power, but proponents of green power see it as a promising future source of
clean, renewable energy that is more environmentally benign than a wind farm.
Pelamis, the wave energy device chosen for the Maine demonstration project,
looks like a broken pencil floating on the water. Each device is longer than a
football field and about 15 feet in diameter. It consists of four tubular steel
pieces, each separated by a hinge that allows the device to move with the motion
of the waves.
Hydraulic pistons located at the three joints create electricity as the
device pitches and yaws on the ocean surface. To visualize how the device works,
think of it like a bicycle pump, Bedard says.
"Pretend that the handle is a floating device that is bobbing up and
down with the waves, and the air piston is a hydraulic piston," he said.
"You pressurize the hydraulic fluid just like you pressurize the air.
Instead of pumping the air into a tire, you pump that hydraulic fluid into a
turbine, which spins the turbine. Spinning the turbine spins the generators, and
that makes electricity."
A commercial wave energy plant, which would use dozens of the devices in one
location, would be able to produce enough electricity to power perhaps 100,000
homes.
But there's one big factor working against Maine. The wave energy generated
off its shores is about half that found on the West Coast.
"On the West Coast, we have these storms out of the Gulf of Alaska and
off the Sea of Japan, and then waves build up and they travel 2,000 miles to the
West Coast," Bedard said.
Underwater topography also plays a role.
"You get larger waves when the water is deeper, and off the coast of
California, Washington and Oregon the water gets deep much more quickly than it
does off the coast of Maine, which is relatively shallow for many miles out into
the Atlantic," Atwell said.
Still, storms can bring some impressive waves to the East Coast during the
winter, and other East Coast states are already examining the potential of wave
energy plants. Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts are cooperating on a
venture with an Australian company to build a plant at Point Judith, R.I.,
hoping to capture the wave energy of Block Island Sound.
Although Maine's wave energy can't compare to what's generated on the West
Coast, "It's still significant," said John Logan of Water and Energy
Systems Corp., a geothermal system design and distribution company. "I
think it could be a good source of green power. There's no question in my mind
that it's doable."
In May, Logan visited two leading manufacturers of wave energy devices in
Scotland, where systems are being designed and tested in seas that have two to
three times the wave energy of Maine. He saw the Pelamis system that's being
proposed for Old Orchard Beach firsthand when it was being brought in from field
trials.
"It was much longer than I expected, long and thin," Logan said.
"I liked it because, being thin, it would stand up to rough waves. It
points into the waves, and then the waves make it wiggle from side to side, and
that's how the electricity is generated."
The results of the feasibility study will be discussed at a California wave
energy conference in September, and then it will be up to the states, the
federal government or private investors to decide if they want to move forward
in any of the chosen locations.
The next phase of the project is expected to cost $500,000, Bedard says, and
will involve coming up with a detailed design, going through the permitting
process and searching for construction financing. Bedard would like to see a
pilot project under construction in Maine by 2006.
But Atwell thinks that timeline is "pretty optimistic," and
predicts a pilot project is perhaps five to seven years away. Atwell also
believes a wave energy project would have a better shot at becoming reality if
it were combined with a project to create electricity from the region's strong
tidal currents. Such projects are already being tested in New York and San
Francisco, he says.
"There are new, pretty unobtrusive technologies that can be installed
below the surface, basically windmills in the ocean, that attach to the ocean
floor," he said.
Bedard is pursuing that idea by sending out a proposal for another
feasibility study to seven states, along with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and
British Columbia.
Wave energy "won't fit everywhere," Atwell said, "so I think
we're going to need a lot of alternative energy options to replace the fossil
fuels over the next generation or two."
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at: