July 22, 2011 - Nova Scotia tidal energy: past, proposed, and future

This week's story about a possible hydrokinetic tidal energy project in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy reminded me of large-scale tidal projects that have been proposed in northeastern North America over the years.  Chief among these may be the Passamaquoddy Power Project proposed in the early 20th century, but the PPP wasn't the only grand project dreamed up.

Sunset over the harbor at Five Islands, Georgetown, Maine.

One tidal project floated in the early 1980s involved developing up to 6,000 MW of tidal power capacity through two dams in Nova Scotia.  One dam would have blocked off Shepody Bay (the arm of the Bay of Fundy reaching toward Moncton and the Petitcodiac River near the Nova Scotia - New Brunswick border), while the other would have walled off part of Minas Basin between Cape Blomidon and Parrsboro.  Neither of these dams was ever built, although the tidal energy resource of Minas Basin continues to draw interest.

One reason may be the impact of the projects on coastal communities along the Bay of Fundy -- and in fact well out into the Gulf of Maine.  A news article from 1981 suggests that these tidal dams would have increased the tidal range in Portland, Maine -- about 300 miles away -- by up to 18 inches.  This increase in tidal range could have negatively impacted coastal communities, eroding soil, causing property damage, and tidal flooding.  By contrast, the article suggested that the Passamaquoddy project or a smaller one proposed for Half Moon Cove would not raise tides elsewhere.

These projects may not have been built, but with Nova Scotia's new community-based feed-in tariff, developers of in-stream tidal projects can expect $652 per MWh for qualified energy produced in the province.  Will Nova Scotia's feed-in tariff lead to more tidal projects in the Bay of Fundy?

June 10, 2010 update - a new Maine tidal project

Today's Bangor Daily News includes an article about Halcyon Marine Hydroelectric's plans to install a tidal power project in Cobscook Bay.

Ramez Atiya, founder of Halcyon, has developed invented a new way to build tidal hydropower systems at a much lower cost.  Atiya has a patent on his "parallel cycle" “tidal wing.  His prototype would be a concrete structure 400 meters long, 15' above mean water level, housing 4 generators.  In a new refinement of the Passamaquoddy Power Project's technology, Halcyon's approach would combine power generation on the flood and ebb tides with pumping.  Atiya claims that the tides within the cove will rise and fall just as if the tidal wing were not there.

Where does Halycon want to build?  First, a demonstration project at Half Moon Cove.

June 10, 2010 - tidal power in Maine in the 1930s

I've been reading the 1937 Federal Writers' Project book Maine - A Guide 'Down East' in the past days. I was first drawn to the description of my home territory, including the tide mill at Winnegance. This reading in turn pointed me at the grand Passamaquoddy Power Project.

It is interesting to see how writers in 1937 viewed the linkage between tidal energy development and economic development and growth . Take, for example, the Guide's description of Lubec:

LUBEC (alt. 80, Lubec Town, pop. 2983), 11 m., has had greatly increased activity since the beginning of the Passamaquoddy Power Project (see Tour 1N). It is a picturesque seaside village with beautiful views of surrounding bays and coves.

At the time, Maine was viewed as having vast mineral resources, needing only affordable energy to develop:

The clays that form enormous deposits around Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Bays and elsewhere are particularly rich and promising sources of bauxite, the only ore of aluminum now in commercial use. The existence of cheap power, which the completed tide-harnessing project at Quoddy would supply, should make the development of this important resource economically possible.

Maine - A Guide 'Down East' at 10.

The description of the Passamaquoddy Project echoes these values:

The electricity generated at Quoddy would be greater than the combined capacity of all existing power stations in the State, and would supply cheap power to farms throughout Maine and to industries which might be encouraged to enter the region. It was hoped by advocates of the project that the newly created opportunities for manufacturing would bring about the development of the State's mineral deposits.

You probably don't think of Maine as a hub of mining and refining powered by tidal power.  The Passamaquoddy Power Project was never completed.   Lubec and Quoddy were hives of activity for several brief years in the mid-1930s, as hundreds of men and women descended on the area to construct a number of dams for the project.  Dams were built between several key points and islands, including tidal dikes built between Treat Island and Dudley Island and from the Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation to Carlow Island, and then connecting to Moose Island, which makes up the bulk of Eastport.

After all this excitement and activity, the project was ultimately canceled.  Congressional support was pulled.  In the ensuing 70 years, the government has renewed its interest in the tidal power of Passamaquoddy Bay several times, although the lack of consistent support and direction may be responsible for the lack of any completed projects.  I'll look at why this may be in the coming days.

June 9, 2010 - tidal power in Maine: the Passamquoddy Power Project

Maine's historic wood and stone tide mills were just going dark in the 1930s. At the same time, larger tidal power projects were in the works. Chief of these was the Passamaquoddy Power Project, a large project designed to generate 300 to 500 MW of capacity.

In 1919, having returned from dam siting and building in South America, Dexter P. Cooper took some rest and relaxation on Campobello Island, just over the New Brunswick border from (and only accessible by road from) Lubec, Maine. As the August 1935 article in Popular Science put it:

With nothing to do, Cooper spent whole days watching the tides swirl past the island. He calculated the billions of horsepower going to waste. As a sort of hobby, he began imagining ways of putting the rising and falling water to work. In the end, he became convinced of the entire practicability of harnessing the Fundy tides.

What Cooper envisioned was the construction of five huge dams connecting various points and islands near the junction of Passamaquoddy Bay and Cobscook Bay. Cobscook Bay would be effectively walled off from Passamaquoddy Bay. As the Bay of Fundy's tide rose in Passamaquoddy Bay, the topography would make Passamaquoddy fill much faster than Cobscook. Once a five-foot head was built up, the penstocks would be opened and Passamaquoddy would fall down into Cobscook, spinning turbine generators along the way. Under expected conditions, the head could build up to as much as 18 to 23 feet. At low tide, gates would open and equalize the water levels.

Tidal projects have always had to deal with the effects of lunar time changes. Each night, the moon passes its zenith about 50 minutes later than the night before. In older times, this meant that the milling could only take place for part of the day, and not necessarily at convenient times. The Passamaquoddy project included an early pumped storage reservoir. A 180,000 horsepower pumping station at Haycock Harbor was to pump seawater into a 13,000 acre reservoir at 130' above sea level.

If you've ever been to Lubec, or if you follow tidal power projects, you probably know that the Passamaquoddy Power Project was never completed. I'm looking at the "why", to see what we can learn from history.

June 8, 2010 - tidal power in history: Winnegance to Passamaquoddy

I was fortunate to use wind power yesterday afternoon: I went sailing with a colleague on his Hunter 41. While on my way to the dock in Falmouth, I stopped by the site of a historic tide mill:

From Energy Policy Update

This isn't the best photo, but beyond the picnic table, you can see a stone pier extending across the mouth of Mill Creek. It seems information on the history of this mill site is limited, but it is suggested that it milled grain, and then lumber. The Town of Falmouth maintains a short but nice trail here, although parking is very limited.

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Federal Writers' Project, a program under the WPA designed to put writers to work while promoting economic development through tourism and industry. The project published 48 state guides to America (plus Alaska, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.) known as the American Guide Series. Each state in this series compiled its own detailed histories and descriptions of every city and town, along with narratives of interesting automobile tours.

Yesterday, I looked at the history of tidal power development at Winnegance, near Bath and Phippsburg, Maine. The 1937 Maine Writers' Project Guide describes the one remaining tide mill at Winnegance:

At 3 m. is the junction with a dirt road. Left on this road to a Tide Mill, 0.4 m., which until 1935 was used for cutting lumber. This old structure is a primitive forerunner of the mills and factories planned as part of the Passamquoddy Power Project.

So we can see that by 1937, policymakers including the federal government were reconsidering Maine's tidal power resources. Winnegance's tide mills were just on their way out, but the Passamaquoddy Power Project was just on the eastern horizon. Tomorrow I'll look at the 500 MW PPP in more depth.

June 7, 2010 - historic tidal energy: tide mills and

I've been looking into the history of tidal power and coastal use policy. The Winnegance story is illustrative of the kind of resources and opportunities that exist along the coast of Maine and many other states, as well as the kinds of conflicts that arise through development of these resources.

One classic conflict is between energy development and environmental protection. For dam proposals, whether tidal or in rivers, one of the common considerations is the impact on fish. Recently, this came up in the Fort Halifax dam case, where a lack of agreement over fish passage resulted in 2008 in the depowering and removal of the 1908 dam.

Fish protection came up with the dams and mills at Winnegance as early as 1892. In that year, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine considered the case Oliver v. Bailey. On February 24, 1892, game wardens on patrol came across a bass net that had been strung across Winnegance Creek by John Oliver, whose property abutted the stream. This was prohibited by a special act passed in 1885, which regulated the level of water behind the dam as well as the catching of bass in Winnegance Creek.

The Court's opinion notes the the local history and alterations to land use based on commercial needs:

prior to 1837 Winnegance creek was an Inlet of the Kennebec river; that in that year, under the charter granted in 1835, the dam was erected across said creek, and northeast of the public highway, extending from the Bath to the Phippsburg shore; that sawmills on the dam were erected, and gates constructed, for the purpose of sawing lumber; and that the dam so erected, and the mills so constructed, thereon, had for their purpose the utilization of water to be held In the creek above said dam by the operation of said gates.

The Court's opinion provides an interesting look into how the tide mills played a major role in shaping the local landscape:

It was also agreed that since said date, at different times, as business might warrant, the several mills upon said dam have been in operation; that the owners of said mills each have above the same, and between the dam and the highway, booming privileges. In which to place their logs, and that the same were set off and allotted to the several owners of the mills on said dam, wherein each might place and hold his logs for use; that the flood gates in said dam are 18 feet wide, would admit scows, lighters, and rowboats, and that such had at times passed through said gates, and under said highway; that, at a certain time of tide, mastless scows, skiffs, and boats can pass under said highway, provided the owners of the booming privileges leave an opening so to do; and that there has been place left by the owners of said booming privileges for craft, of the kind and type designated, to pass up said creek.

The court again addressed the impacts of the tide mill development on navigation and commerce:

It was also agreed that the bridge connecting the city of Bath and the town of Phippsburg has been maintained by both for many years; that said bridge is built, legally, of cobwork spiling, and across the channel are stringers, affording a space under said bridge from 30 to 40 feet long, that gundolos may pass through up and down; that some 40 years ago a schooner was built and launched In the creek, and taken out to the Kennebec river, by removing a portion of the dam sufficient to give passage to said schooner from the creek Into the river; that the lighters mentioned, carrying boards and wood of some kind, have occasionally passed through the gates, and under the bridge; and that the millowners, when the tide had reached its flood, have all the gates so constructed that, at the beginning of slack water, they close, and the water is held for the purpose of running the mills constructed on said dam.

Oliver argued that the regulations were "intended only for the protection of salt-water fish, or fish that migrate between salt and fresh water". Oliver argued that the 1835 legislative dam authorization and 1837 dam construction, use of the upstream pond for booming logs, and limited navigation through the dam, "separated Wlnnegance creek above the dam from the general body of the tidal waters of the state, and taken it out of the above-cited statutes for the protection of migratory fish."

The Supreme Judicial Court disagreed, stating, "The statutory protection of these fish is as important now as before the erection of the dam." Oliver lost his case, and presumably his net.

In Oliver's case, the court wrestled with the question of whether the tidal power development had so fundamentally changed the landscape as to take Winnegance Creek from tidal to non-tidal status. The court concluded that, in light of environmental considerations, it had not. There may have been other more subtle issues in play in the 1892 case, but it provides an interesting window into the past history of tidal energy development in Maine.

I'm curious how this issue would be addressed today. What are the inshore effects of tidal barrage and related power technologies? Today these issues might not come up in the context of game wardens, but the descriptions of the tide mills' impacts of navigation, commerce, and fisheries all have relevance to modern tidal power development.

Soon to come: more Winnegance history, and a look at how things were for the much larger Passamaquoddy Power Project in the 1930s.

June 3, 2010 - Red Sox, whales, and tidal power projects in history

I'm fortunate to be headed to this afternoon's Red Sox game. Boston is not really that far from Maine, at least not by Maine standards. I grew up around Boston. Between business and family, I'm often in Boston these days. To be able to take in a Sox game is a real treat.

Last weekend, I went on a whale watch out of Boston with the New England Aquarium. We saw a number of humpback and minke whales, plus an offshore seal that may have been a gray seal.

We cruised through Boston Harbor, with views of the Custom House and the working waterfront. We passed right by the Everett LNG terminal and the short but prominent wind turbine. Past the archipelago of Boston Harbor Islands National Park, we headed off to Stellwagen Bank, where the action was.

I go on whale watches mostly to see the marine mammals, birds and fish. I've had some amazing encounters out there.

Sailing from different ports from Key West through Essipit in the Cote-Nord of Quebec, it's interesting to see common threads of history in harbor and coastline development. One of these that I've encountered in several places recently is historic tidal power development.

Tomorrow, I'll look into a local tide mill just downriver from my house, as well as the grander Passamaquoddy Power Project of the 1930s: a proposed 500 MW international tidal barrage project. The lessons we can learn from history are invaluable as we consider new iterations of old questions.