A Canadian tidal power developer has installed a turbine at a test site in the Bay of Fundy. Cape Sharp Tidal's project off Nova Scotia could demonstrate the feasibility of larger-scale marine hydrokinetic power plants connected to the mainland electricity grid.
Cape Sharp Tidal is a joint venture between Canadian utility Emera Inc. and marine turbine manufacturer OpenHydro. Its project entails a grid-connected 4-megawatt array consisting of two tidal turbines. The project is located at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) site. Headquartered near Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, FORCE is Canada's leading research center for in-stream tidal energy, with demonstration berths, a grid interconnection capable of accepting tidal power, and environmental monitoring capabilities.
This week Cape Sharp Tidal deployed the project's first turbine-generator, a 2-megawatt OpenHydro unit. In subsequent work, crews interconnected the turbine cable tail to the FORCE site's main interconnection cable, an existing 16MW subsea export cable connected to an onshore substation.
Previous efforts to develop hydrokinetic tidal energy projects in the Bay of Fundy have met with difficulty. While the bay offers large and powerful tides, weather and sea conditions can prove challenging, as can obtaining environmental and regulatory approvals. A test tidal turbine deployed in 2009 was quickly destroyed; the turbine installed this week was originally slated for installation earlier but was delayed due to concerns over impacts to fisheries and the environment. This week's installation represents a concrete step forward for Canadian tidal power.
Cape Sharp Tidal intends to install and connect a second turbine at the FORCE site in 2017. According to the developer, its future plans -- subject to regulatory and business approvals -- could include a commercial-scale project of up to 300 megawatts capacity within 15 years.
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Showing posts with label OpenHydro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OpenHydro. Show all posts
Snohomish tidal project wins FERC pilot license
Friday, March 21, 2014
Federal regulators have issued a pilot license for a proposed tidal energy project in Washington.
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a 10-year pilot license to Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County for the proposed Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project. The 600-kilowatt hydrokinetic project, to be located in Puget Sound in the state of Washington, is designed as a temporary, experimental project to evaluate the commercial viability of tidal energy development in Puget Sound.
According to the Commission's Order Issuing Pilot Project License (85-page PDF), the proposed project features two tidal turbines to be manufactured by OpenHydro, each measuring 6 meters in diameter, secured to the seabed by the turbines' 414-ton weight. Peak tidal currents at the site exceed 3 meters per second. The Public Utility District plans to connect the project to the mainland grid via subsea cables connecting to District-leased land south of the Coupeville Ferry Terminal.
In granting the pilot license, the Commission considered a range of possible resource impacts from the project. The site lies near key shipping lanes to the ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Everett, and is near a key trans-oceanic fiber optic cable connecting North America to Japan. To address concerns over impacts to these resources, the Commission imposed conditions and monitoring requirements on the project.
The Commission's pilot licensure program differs somewhat from its general licensing of hydropower projects. As described in a whitepaper on the pilot project licensing process prepared by Commission staff, pilot projects should be (1) small; (2) short term; (3) located in non-sensitive areas based on the Commission’s review of the record; (4) removable and able to be shut down on short notice; (5) removed, with the site restored, before the end of the license term (unless a new license is granted); and (6) initiated by a draft application in a form sufficient to support environmental analysis. Projects meeting these criteria enjoy a streamlined regulatory review process.
With the pilot license in hand, the Public Utility District may prepare for project development. But if the project goes forward, the District may have to justify its costs. As noted in the Commission’s order, the project has relatively high capital, operation, and maintenance costs with respect to the amount of power produced. According to the Commission’s order, the levelized annual cost of operating the project will be about $1,848,294, or $7,574.98 per megawatt-hour of energy generated -- significantly higher than the estimated $30/MWh cost of alternative power. Based on an estimated average annual generation of 244,000 kilowatt-hours as licensed, Commission staff projects that in the first year of operation, the project power will cost $1,840,974 more than the cost of alternative power.
Admittedly, the Snohomish project is designed as an experiment -- a pilot project to test technology and project feasibility. The Snohomish project is among the first hydrokinetic projects in the country to receive a FERC license. The first pilot project issued for a tidal project, the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project, similarly faces projected above-market energy costs. Like the Roosevelt Island project, the Snohomish project will be relatively small. But given its financial picture, will the Snohomish project go forward?
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| Tidal waters off the Maine coast. |
According to the Commission's Order Issuing Pilot Project License (85-page PDF), the proposed project features two tidal turbines to be manufactured by OpenHydro, each measuring 6 meters in diameter, secured to the seabed by the turbines' 414-ton weight. Peak tidal currents at the site exceed 3 meters per second. The Public Utility District plans to connect the project to the mainland grid via subsea cables connecting to District-leased land south of the Coupeville Ferry Terminal.
In granting the pilot license, the Commission considered a range of possible resource impacts from the project. The site lies near key shipping lanes to the ports of Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Everett, and is near a key trans-oceanic fiber optic cable connecting North America to Japan. To address concerns over impacts to these resources, the Commission imposed conditions and monitoring requirements on the project.
The Commission's pilot licensure program differs somewhat from its general licensing of hydropower projects. As described in a whitepaper on the pilot project licensing process prepared by Commission staff, pilot projects should be (1) small; (2) short term; (3) located in non-sensitive areas based on the Commission’s review of the record; (4) removable and able to be shut down on short notice; (5) removed, with the site restored, before the end of the license term (unless a new license is granted); and (6) initiated by a draft application in a form sufficient to support environmental analysis. Projects meeting these criteria enjoy a streamlined regulatory review process.
With the pilot license in hand, the Public Utility District may prepare for project development. But if the project goes forward, the District may have to justify its costs. As noted in the Commission’s order, the project has relatively high capital, operation, and maintenance costs with respect to the amount of power produced. According to the Commission’s order, the levelized annual cost of operating the project will be about $1,848,294, or $7,574.98 per megawatt-hour of energy generated -- significantly higher than the estimated $30/MWh cost of alternative power. Based on an estimated average annual generation of 244,000 kilowatt-hours as licensed, Commission staff projects that in the first year of operation, the project power will cost $1,840,974 more than the cost of alternative power.
Admittedly, the Snohomish project is designed as an experiment -- a pilot project to test technology and project feasibility. The Snohomish project is among the first hydrokinetic projects in the country to receive a FERC license. The first pilot project issued for a tidal project, the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project, similarly faces projected above-market energy costs. Like the Roosevelt Island project, the Snohomish project will be relatively small. But given its financial picture, will the Snohomish project go forward?
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