Tide Mill Institute 2018 symposium

Tide Mill Institute holds its 14th annual conference on November 10, 2018, in Beverly, Massachusetts. The symposium -- "Creating Tide Mills -- Then and Now", features educators, historians, environmentalists, archeologists and others interested in tidal power and its history.

Tide Mill Institute exists to advance the appreciation of tide mill history and technology by encouraging research, by promoting appropriate re-uses of former tide mill sites, and by fostering communication among tide mill enthusiasts. Since 2005, the Institute has held an annual symposium on the past, present, and future uses of tidal energy.

This year's conference topics focus on how humans historically extracted power from the tides, as well as on efforts to use this power again in the current era. Speakers and discussions will address topics including:

• Medieval vertical and horizontal millwheels and their diffusion from mainland Europe.
• Fresh-water tidal rice mills in South Carolina.
• An in-stream tidal device in New York’s East River supplying power to the grid.
• Proposed perpetual tidal power system for Salem Massachusetts.
• A tide mill at the heart of the 1775 Battle of Brooklyn.
• Winter storm surges damage historic tide mills in Massachusetts and New York.
• Recreating gearing features of two early North Shore tide mills.
• A new tidal energy canal for Boston?
• The structure of tide mill dams.

Tide Mill Institute's 2018 symposium will be held on Saturday, November 10, 2018, from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, at the Cummings Center in Beverly, Massachusetts. Registration materials are available on Tide Mill Institute's website. Lunch is included; attendees are encouraged to register by November 1.

FERC denies tidal pilot license extension

U.S. hydropower regulators have denied a request to extend the term of the country's first hydrokinetic project pilot license, instead holding that the original license's 10-year term should be enough time for the developer to complete testing and to decide whether to apply for a subsequent license.

At issue is Verdant Power, LLC's  Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project No. 12611 (RITE Project). The 1,050-kilowatt hydrokinetic tidal project site is located in the East River near New York City. In 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the project a "pilot project license" under a newly developed process designed to allow entities to test new hydrokinetic technologies, identify appropriate sites, and confirm the technology's environmental or other effects. That pilot license allowed the construction, operation, and maintenance of the RITE Project for a 10-year period, expiring on December 31, 2021.

In 2017, the company described plans to install the pilot project's first phase in the 2019-2020 timeframe. On December 29, 2017, Verdant filed a request to extend the term of its pilot license for the RITE project by five years, to give it more time to acquire operational monitoring data that will inform subsequent phases of the pilot project and the relicense application.

But by order dated May 3, 2018, the Commission denied Verdant's request for a license extension. The Commission noted that the pilot license bore a 10-year term, twice as long Commission staff's original conceptions of hydrokinetic pilot project licenses for up to 5-year terms for testing purposes. The Commission noted, "Barring extraordinary circumstances, 10 years – double the period set forth in the white paper – should be enough time to complete a testing program and to make a decision on whether to file an application for subsequent license. Verdant has not demonstrated such circumstances."

Noting the remaining time left on Verdant's license, as well as the time left to Verdant before any application for a new license, the Commission denied the company's request for a license extension.

Maine tidal pilot project not seeking new license

The holder of a federal pilot license for a Maine tidal energy project has told regulators that it does not intend to relicense the project beyond the pilot license's expiration in 2022, pointing to tidal current velocities at the project site as inadequate to justify pursuing a commercial license.

At issue is the Cobscook Bay Tidal Project.  On February 27, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a pilot project license to ORPC Maine, LLC for the project for a period of eight years.  Later that year, it became the first grid-tied commercial tidal power plant in the U.S.

The Commission later granted a subsequent request by ORPC to extend its license term for the Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project from eight years to ten years, until January 31, 2022.  In that order extending the pilot license term, the Commission noted "the experimental nature of hydrokinetic devices, the licensee’s dedication to expanding and improving the technology and design of its project, and the insignificant or no impact to the surrounding environment by extending the license term two years."

Because the FERC licensing process can take years to complete, licensees are required to make public filings between 5 and 5-and-a-half years in advance of license expiry.  On March 14, 2017, ORPC made such a filing.  In that March 14 letter, ORPC noted some project successes:

The Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy site has served a pivotal role in the advancement of ORPC’s technology specifically and the domestic marine hydrokinetic industry generally. ORPC anticipates that the project infrastructure in place, the environmental monitoring and data analysis efforts, resource information documentation, and collaborative relationships with existing marine users will continue through the duration of the existing pilot license term. With concurrence of the Project Adaptive Management Team, we will be testing new generations of system components and assembled systems at the project site and will keep FERC informed regarding these efforts.

But then ORPC noted an intent not to seek a commercial license for the project after the pilot license's expiration:

While the project site serves as an excellent testing area, ORPC considers the tidal current velocities at the Project site inadequate to justify pursuing a commercial license. Therefore ORPC does not intend to file a NOI or PAD for the Project at this time.

In a May 25, 2017 letter to the licensee, Commission staff characterized the licensee's March 14 filing as "a notice of intent not to relicense the Cobscook Bay Tidal Project," citing the licensee's position on tidal velocities, and noting the licensee's stated intent to continue operating the project until the pilot license expires on January 31, 2022.

Nova Scotia tidal turbine installed

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.

Maine tidal project preliminary permit issued

A tidal energy developer has been granted a preliminary permit to study a proposed project in Western Passage, near the city of Eastport, Maine.

Under the Federal Power Act, most grid-connected tidal power projects require licensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  Section 4(f) of the Federal Power Act authorizes the Commission  to issue preliminary permits to allow prospective applicants for a hydropower license time to secure the data and perform the acts required to prepare a license application.  A preliminary permit preserves the holder's right to have first priority in applying for a license for the project being studied.

On December 4, 2015, ORPC Maine, LLC applied for a preliminary permit to study the feasibility of the proposed Western Passage Tidal Energy Project No. 14743.  As described in that application, the project would include fifteen of ORPC's proprietary 500-kilowatt hydrokinetic marine turbine-generator units for a combined capacity of 7.5 megawatts, along with anchoring and mooring systems, and transmission lines running ashore to an existing distribution line.  The materials describe an estimated average annual generation of 2.6 to 3.53 gigawatt-hours.

The Commission granted that preliminary permit by an order dated July 13, 2016.  In that order, the Commission addressed comments filed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and an individual.

In its comments, the tribe raised concerns over what the Commission calls "site banking".  As described by the Commission, the essence of its policy against site banking is that "an entity that is unwilling or unable to develop a site should not be permitted to maintain the exclusive right to develop it."  In some cases, the Commission invokes its policy against site banking to deny applications for successive preliminary permits.

The tribe questioned whether ORPC Maine should be granted a new preliminary permit when it has held two prior preliminary permits for the site of the proposed Western Passage Project -- the first issued in 2007, and a successive permit in 2011 -- without ever filing a development application. 

But in ORPC's case, the Commission noted that the project site has been unencumbered by a permit since ORPC's most recent permit expired in 2013, and that no other entity has filed a preliminary permit or development application for the site.  The Commission concluded that "a sufficient amount of time has passed for any other entity interested in developing the Western Passage Project site to have filed a preliminary permit or development application for the site and none has done so. Consequently, issuing a permit at this time to ORPC Maine for this site would not contribute to site banking."

Edgartown's Muskeget tidal project faces questions

A municipal tidal power project proposed for the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard faces federal deadlines if its licensing process is to continue.  The Muskeget Channel Tidal Energy Project, proposed by the Town of Edgartown, is seeking a pilot project license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission -- but faces questions from Commission staff.

On February 1, 2011, the Town of Edgartown filed, pursuant to the Commission’s pilot licensing procedures, a draft license application for the proposed Muskeget Channel Tidal Energy Project.  The project would feature an array of 14 marine hydrokinetic tidal turbines, with a commercial generating capacity of 5 megawatts or less.

But that license application remains incomplete.  On April 1, 2011, Commission staff issued a letter requesting that Edgartown provide additional information, including details about the proposed project and multiple plans, drawings, and reports.  Over the ensuing years, Edgartown filed some responsive information, but according to the Commission, Edgartown did not file the remaining information by the deadline or provide a schedule indicating when the information would be filed after the deadline was missed.

Over two years after the deadline, on April 21, 2016, Commission staff issued a letter requiring Edgartown to show cause, within 30 days, why Commission staff should not terminate the prefiling licensing process for the project.  According to the Commission, Edgartown did not respond, but Congressman William Keating asked the Commission to extend the show cause deadline until the Massachusetts Clean Energy Commission decides whether to award the project a grant.

In a June 2 letter, Commission staff directed Edgartown to, within 30 days, provide a schedule specifying when it will file with the Commission each of the outstanding items requested in Commission staff’s April 1, 2011 letter.  The letter says, "Upon receipt of this information, Commission staff will make a determination on how to proceed with the incomplete application for the Muskeget Channel Tidal Energy Project."  For now, the prelicensing process for the Muskeget tidal project remains pending.

Alaska tidal permit surrendered

Five years after applying for and receiving a preliminary permit to study a proposed Alaska tidal energy project, the project developer has surrendered that permit.

At issue is ORPC Alaska 2, LLC's proposed East Foreland Tidal Energy Project.  The developer first applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a preliminary permit under Section 4(f) of the Federal Power Act on August 2, 2010. 

That application described a project site in middle Cook Inlet, a marine waterway of the northern Pacific Ocean. The proposed hydrokinetic project would lie offshore of the East Foreland, near the west coast of the Kenai Peninsula by Nikiski, Alaska.  The application described the site in middle Cook Inlet as offering a maximum tidal range of up to 9.20 meters, with geomorphology favorable to strong currents.  The application described the developer's intent to install a pilot or commercial project in a phased approach.

The FERC issued a first preliminary permit for the East Foreland project by order dated March 11, 2011.  As permitted, the East Foreland project would include a series of 150-kilowatt TideGen and/or 150-kW OCGen turbine-generator modules developed by ORPC, with a combined capacity between 5 megawatts (MW) and 100 MW, with an average annual generation between 13 and 340 gigawatt-hours.

Over the ensuing years, the permittee studied the site and the project and filed periodic reports to the Commission. The preliminary permit required the permittee to file a notice of intent and draft pilot license application within two years of the permit date, but ORPC requested and received a six-month extension. 

On March 3, 2013, the permittee filed a request for a successive preliminary permit for the East Foreland Tidal Energy Project.  The Commission granted a successive preliminary permit on June 16, 2014, describing a project with a combined capacity of no more than 5 megawatts.  Study and reporting activities continued.

But on December 11, 2015, the permittee filed a request for acceptance of its surrender of the East Foreland Tidal Energy Project's preliminary permit.  In that request, the permittee described its "significant progress in evaluating the feasibility of a tidal energy project at East Foreland, Alaska, over the past several years."

Yet the surrender request also described the headwinds that stalled the project:

Nonetheless, the strength of the conventional energy market in Alaska precludes timely integration of new technology, like tidal energy systems, and advancement of the Project at the pace established by the original Schedule of Activities. As a result, public and private funding sources have sought nearer-term market impact from their investments. This in turn has negatively affected ORPC’s ability to expeditiously gather site data during Alaska’s limited field season window and maintain pace with FERC milestones.

As a result, the request describes the permittee's decision to surrender the East Foreland tidal project's preliminary permit and "to continue our focus and dedication of resources towards technology optimization and development of near term market opportunities that are available to ORPC and its power system technology."

Washington tidal power license surrendered

U.S. hydropower regulators have accepted a Washington public utility district's application to surrender its license for an unconstructed tidal power project.

Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County, Washington was the licensee for the Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project No. 12690.  The hydrokinetic energy project was to be located on the east side of Admiralty Inlet in Puget Sound, about 0.6 mile west of Whidbey Island. Project works were to consist of two 300-kilowatt OpenHydro tidal turbines, each mounted on a triangular subsea base, adaptable monitoring devices, trunk cables extending from each turbine to an onshore cable termination vault, and transformers and other facilities connecting to Puget Sound Energy’s electrical distribution system.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a minor, pilot project license for the Admiralty Island project on March 20, 2014, enabling construction, operation, and maintenance of the project for a period of ten years.

But in September 2014, the licensee was notified that it would not receive additional funding to proceed with the development of the project. Unable to locate alternative funding sources, the licensee determined that the project was no longer financially feasible. The licensee therefore requested to surrender its license.

On December 4, 2015, the licensee filed an application to surrender its license. Two entities filed motions to intervene in support of the license surrender.

On March 21, 2016, the Commission issued its order accepting the Admiralty Inlet tidal project's license surrender. In that order, the Commission noted that no construction or ground-disturbing activity has occurred, that the project site remains unaltered, and that surrendering the license would not affect any environmental resources.  The Commission therefore approved the licensee’s application to surrender its license without condition.

As a result of the order, the license for the proposed Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project No. 12690 is surrendered, effective at the close of business on March 21, 2016.  The site could still be developed as a tidal power resource, if a future application for development is granted.

ORPC Maine files Western Passage preliminary permit application

A Maine-based tidal energy company has applied to federal regulators for a preliminary permit for a tidal energy project proposed for development off the coast.  ORPC Maine, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ocean Renewable Power Company, LLC, filed its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on December 4, 2015, seeking a preliminary permit for the Western Passage Tidal Energy Project off the downeast city of Eastport.  The preliminary permit could set ORPC up to develop hydrokinetic energy generation at the site, though process and uncertainty lie ahead before the project could be developed.

ORPC filed its application for preliminary permit for the Western Passage project on December 4, 2015.  The FERC docketed the filing under P-14743.  As described in its application, the project would entail "a next generation TidGen® Power System with a buoyant tension mooring system (BTMS)."  The turbine generator unit, or TGU, would be similar to that installed by ORPC in Cobscook Bay in 2012.  While ORPC noted that it will determine the ultimate project configuration based on activities conducted during the preliminary permit phase, ORPC estimates the project will consist of approximately 15 total TGUs. The nameplate rating of each will be up to 500 kilowatts (kW) with the total project output capped at 5 MW.

ORPC previously held preliminary permits for the Western Passage site (P-12680) which expired on December 31, 2013. ORPC requested a successive preliminary permit on January 1, 2014, but the FERC issued an order denying a third preliminary permit for lack of extraordinary circumstances.

In its recent application, ORPC notes that it has "continued environmental studies and engagement with local stakeholders and regulatory officials regarding the Cobscook Bay Project, and have kept them informed regarding potential future plans for Western Passage," and highlights its other recent successes, including support from the U.S. Department of Energy and local stakeholders.

It is unclear whether the FERC will grant ORPC's application.  Assuming it does, the preliminary permit will give ORPC exclusive rights for 36 months to study the site, and priority to file an application for a project license.  That preliminary permit term should enable ORPC to study any technical and economic challenges relating to the Western Passage project -- after which the developer may be in a better position to evaluate the project's feasibility and support an application for a license.

NYC tidal energy project in question

The future of a proposed New York City tidal energy project is in question.  New York Tidal Energy Company's (NYTEC) East River Tidal Energy Pilot Project would be located in the East River at Hell Gate, in New York City, New York.  But a recent letter by federal regulators questions whether the developer intends to continue pursuing the project.

Marine hydrokinetic (or MHK) projects generate electricity from moving water such as tides, waves, and free-flowing rivers without the use of dams.  While technologies vary, many rely on underwater turbines powered by tidal currents.to spin generators.  Hydrokinetic energy development is generally regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which issues preliminary permits and licenses for project development.

The East River project's regulatory process began in 2006, when Oceana Energy Company subsidary NYTEC applied to the FERC for a preliminary permit for what it called the Astoria Tidal Energy Project.  That application described a project composed of between 50 and 150 Tidal In Stream Energy Conversion (TISEC) devices consisting of rotating propeller blades, integrated generators with a capacity of 0.5 to 2.0 MW each, anchoring systems, mooring lines, and interconnection transmission lines.  The project was estimated to have an annual generation of 8.76 gigawatt-hours per-unit per-year, which would be sold to a local utility.  After resolving a dispute with fellow New York City tidal developer Verdant Power, LLC, the FERC granted a preliminary permit for the Astoria project on May 31, 2007.  NYTEC won another preliminary permit on January 10, 2011.

On June 1, 2009, NYTEC filed a draft application for an original license for the East River Tidal Energy Pilot Project.  That license application described the proposed East River Tidal Energy Pilot Project.  As reenvisioned, the East River project would consist of: (1) a 2-meter-diameter 20 kW capacity hydrokinetic device during Phase 1, which would be replaced by a 6-meter-diameter 200 kW device in Phase 2; (2) an underwater cable connecting the hydrokinetic device to shore at one of two proposed locations; and (3) appurtenant facilities for operating and maintaining the project.  After soliciting comment from stakeholders and agencies, on November 9, 2010, the Commission issued a letter concluding the pre-filing process.

In the ensuing 4 years, while the docket experienced some activity, no final license application for the pilot project has been filed.  On November 10, FERC staff issued a letter to Oceana Energy Company asking for a status update on the proposed project within 14 days.  The letter states that staff wants to "adjust resources to workload requirements," and suggests that staff will close the docket if the developer intends to continue pursuing the proposed East River Tidal Energy Pilot Project.

What does the future hold for the East River Tidal Energy Pilot Project?

Washington tidal energy project cancelled

A tidal energy project proposed off the Washington coast will be scrapped due to cost overruns, according to the project developer.

Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County's proposed Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project was envisioned as a temporary, experimental project to evaluate the commercial viability of tidal energy development in Puget Sound.  The 600-kilowatt hydrokinetic project would have generated electricity from the force of water moving through turbines mounted in tidal currents.  Earlier this year, the project won a pilot license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, making it among the first tidal projects to qualify for the Commission's pilot licensure program.

But the estimated costs of the project were significant relative to its projected energy output.  Since it was first proposed in 2006, the Public Utility District estimated that the project would cost $20 million to build.  Based on these numbers, the Commission estimated that the levelized annual cost of operating the project would be about $1,848,294.  Dividing this by the project's expected production of energy, the power could cost $7,574.98 per megawatt-hour of energy generated -- an amount over 250 times higher than the estimated $30/MWh cost of alternative power.

Nevertheless, the PUD had designed the project's finances to avoid the need for ratepayer financing.  Rather, the project relied on funding from federal grants and in-kind contributions from project partners, as well as some money from the sale of excess renewable energy credits from the District's wind power projects.  To date, the District has invested about $3.5 million in the effort, over the past 8 years.

With the FERC license in hand, the District moved forward to solicit bids for project engineering and construction.  When those bids came in, the District realized the project would likely cost closer to $37 million, or $17 million more than previously expected.  According to a September 30 announcement by the Public Utility District, the District tried to seek more funding for the project from the U.S. Department of Energy and other project partners, but did not succeed.  As a result, the District has announced that it will not move forward with the project.

While the District is no longer actively pursuing the Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project, some other developer may try to pick up where the District left off.  Indeed, the District's announcement notes that the project "remains worthwhile to pursue on behalf of the nation to further the potential development of marine renewable energy."  Will another developer seek to advance the Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project?  Will other tidal current and marine hydrokinetic projects be developed given the challenges of ocean energy project economics?

Oregon wave energy project surrenders license

Ocean waves contain tremendous amounts of energy that could be harnessed by humans -- but difficulties have led a pilot project proposed off the Oregon coast to surrender a key federal license.

Calm waters along the shore of Penobscot Bay, Maine.

Ocean Power Technologies subsidiary Reedsport OPT Wave Park, LLC had proposed a wave energy project in the Pacific Ocean off the central Oregon coast.  In 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a license for the project.  That license authorized the developer to install a single "PowerBuoy" wave energy converter for testing, followed by additional grid-connected buoys.  The developer also envisioned a third phase that could bring the project's capacity to 50 megawatts, and secured a preliminary permit from the Commission to study the site.

Despite securing these key regulatory approvals, the Reedsport project quickly ran into technical difficulties.  Reedsport began construction of the project in September 2012, by installing a single floating gravity based anchor and auxiliary subsurface buoy.  However, this first phase of the project was unsuccessful and the auxiliary buoy sank.  Reedsport removed the buoy and associated tendon and outer mooring lines from the project area on October 17, 2013.  On February 28, 2014, Ocean Power Technologies notified the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it intended to surrender its preliminary permit for the 50 megawatt third phase, but left the first phase's license in place for the moment.

On May 30, 2014, Reedsport filed an application to surrender its license for project, stating that financial and regulatory challenges in developing the project have forced it to conclude that it cannot proceed with the development of the project.  The Commission accepted that license surrender by order dated August 14, to be effective following confirmation of the project's decommissioning.

With the Reedsport project shelved, no wave energy project currently holds a FERC license.  Several tidal projects have been licensed, one wave-based hydrokinetic project has secured a preliminary permit, and two other wave energy projects have pending applications for preliminary permits.  The ocean remains a demanding environment, and the economics of most wave energy projects are challenging.  Will others succeed where Reedsport OPT has not?

Hydrokinetic energy projects in 2014

Hydrokinetic energy projects generate electricity from moving water, capturing the power embodied in tides, waves, and currents without the use of dams.  Hydrokinetic energy resources are estimated to have a tremendous power potential -- according to one U.S. Department of Energy study, approximately 1,420 terawatt-hours per year, or approximately one-third of the nation's total annual electricity usage.  The technologies required are relatively new, do not have decades of operational experience, and remain relatively expensive.  Nevertheless, federal records show growth in hydrokinetic project development.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates most hydrokinetic energy projects under its hydropower jurisdiction pursuant to the Federal Power Act.  Project developers may seek preliminary permits granting the right to study a particular site and priority to apply for a project license. 

Relatively few projects have received licenses to date.  In 2012, the Commission issued a pilot project license for the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy project in the East River near New York City.  Last month, the Commission issued a pilot project license to the Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County for a 600 kilowatt tidal project in Puget Sound, Washington.

As of last month, six projects have been issued preliminary permits that remain in effect:

• Ecosponsible, Inc.'s Niagara Community project, a 1.25 megawatt inland project proposed for the Niagara River in New York
• Ecosponsible, Inc.'s Niagara Community #2 project, a similar 1.25 megawatt inland project proposed for the Niagara River in New York
• Iguigig Village Council's Iguigig RISEC project, a 40 kilowatt inland project proposed for the Kvichak River in Alaska
• The Town of Edgartown, Massachusetts's Muskeget Channel Tidal Energy project, a 4.94 megawatt project proposed for the Muskeget Channel off the island of Martha's Vineyard
• Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy's Turnagain Arm Tidal project, a 240 megawatt tidal project proposed for Cook Inlet, Alaska
• Resolute Marine Energy, Inc.'s Yakutat project, a 750 kilowatt wave project proposed in the Gulf of Alaska

 As of March, another 15 applications for preliminary permits were pending before the Commission.

Snohomish tidal project wins FERC pilot license

Federal regulators have issued a pilot license for a proposed tidal energy project in Washington.

Tidal waters off the Maine coast.

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?

Nova Scotia tidal power projects

Plans to develop tidal power resources in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia are moving forward, as Fundy Tidal Inc. announces firmer plans to deploy tide-powered generators at three locations in Digby County.

The extreme tidal range in the upper Bay of Fundy gives Nova Scotia a tremendous tidal energy resource.  The province has been home to the 20 megawatt barrage-based Annapolis Royal Tidal Power Plant for almost 30 years; more recently, Nova Scotia established a Marine Renewable Energy Strategy setting a target of 300 MW of commercial tidal development by 2020, an amount roughly equal to 10% of the province's electricity consumption.  Nova Scotia also established a Community-Based Feed-in-Tariff or COMFIT program designed to give qualified tidal energy developers certainty over project revenues early in the development phase.

Fundy Tidal Inc. proposed three projects in Digby County that have received approval through the feed-in tariff program.  The largest, to be developed in the Digby Gut, could generate up to 1.95 megawatts of power.  Two smaller projects in Grand Passage and Petit Passage could each generate up to 500 kilowatts of power.  These three projects have an expected development cost of $30 million.  Fundy Tidal also received approval for COMFIT funding for two projects on Cape Breton Island.

Last month, Fundy Tidal announced a strategic partnership with Tribute Resources Inc. and Tocardo International BV to develop the three Digby County sites.  Under the terms of that partnership, Tocardo will delivery tidal turbines, and will set up a tidal turbine assembly and manufacturing plant in Nova Scotia.  Fundy Tidal will serve as the overall developer and will retain a 51 percent interest in the projects, with Tribute Resources owning the remaining 49 percent interest.

This is not the first time tidal power projects have been proposed in Digby County; previous concepts have ranged from tidal barrage development to deployment of hydrokinetic turbines in conjunction with Ocean Renewable Power Co.  Fundy Tidal now plans to construct and deploy the Digby area projects to deliver power as soon as 2015.  Will these plans come to fruition?

Tidal power past, present, and future at Tide Mill Institute 2013

The Tide Mill Institute held its ninth annual conference this past Friday and Saturday.  About 60 people interested in the past, present, and future of tidal energy gathered at the Topsfield Historical Society's Gould Barn in Massachusetts.  The audience included developers of recreated historic tide mills and modern tidal power projects, inventors of tidal turbine technology, academics, state legislators, historians, architects, and other enthusiasts of tidal power.

Tide Mill Institute's John Goff speaks about historic tide mills in Salem, Massachusetts.

Ocean Renewable Power Company's president and CEO, Chris Sauer, gave the keynote presentation on ORPC's efforts and success in developing modern hydrokinetic tidal power plants in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere.  Chris described the research and development process that led to ORPC's Turbine Generator Unit or TGU.  He also described the engineering, regulatory, and commercial challenges of developing tidal power plants today, as well as ORPC's approach to overcoming these challenges.

Other presentations included: Professor Kerr Canning's exposition of a tide mill site he discovered on the Apple River in Nova Scotia; Professor Robert Gordon's look at tide mill mechanics at sites in York, Maine; a review of tide mill history on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York, by Angela Kramer of the Brooklyn Historical Society and Proteus Gowanus; and a survey by representatives of local historical societies of tide mills on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

Tide Mill Institute members and attendees also enjoyed displays on historic and modern tide power projects, and informal discussions of archaeological discoveries and modern developments. 

The Tide Mill Institute will hold its 10th annual conference in 2014.

Tide Mill Institute to hold conference November 8-9, 2013

The Tide Mill Institute will hold its 9th annual conference this week in Topsfield, Massachusetts.  The event, to be held at the Topsfield Historical Society's Gould Barn on November 8 and 9, brings together people interested in the past, present, and future of tidal energy.

Tidal energy has been used to produce useful power since at least 619, based on archaeological finds at the site of Nendrum Monastery on an island off Northern Ireland.  Tide mills came to the New World along with early European settlers, who captured the energy embodied in the rise and fall of tides and put it to use powering grist mills, lumber mills, and other industries.  According to a 1979 paper, "Early Tide Mills: Some Problems", at one point over 300 tide mills operated in North America.  As their functionality was supplanted by steam engines, electricity, and internal combustion energy, much of society's historic use of tidal energy has been forgotten.

Meanwhile, people still look to the tides to provide useful power.  The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has been home to a 20 megawatt tidal power plant since 1984, and is promoting even more innovative uses of tidal energy resources through incentive programs and policies.  In the United States, the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) has developed the nation's first major grid-tied tidal electric generator, and has ambitious plans to bring more tidal and hydrokinetic projects online around the country.

This week's Tide Mill Institute event brings these themes together into a continuous narrative, from past through the present to the future.  The Tide Mill Institute's mission is:

• to advance appreciation of the American and international heritage of tide mill technology;
• to encourage research into the location and history of tide mill sites;
• to serve as a repository for tide mill data for students, scholars, engineers and the general public and to support and expand the community of these tide mill stakeholders; and 
• to promote appropriate re-uses of old tide-mill sites and the development of the use of tides as an energy source. 

The 2013 conference kicks off Friday night with an informal reception, followed by a symposium and dialogues Saturday from 8 AM through 3:30 PM.

For more information about the Tide Mill Institute, please contact:

• Bud Warren - budw@myfairpoint.net 207-373-1209
• Earl Taylor - ERMMWWT@aol.com 617-293-3052
• Todd Griset - tgriset@preti.com 207-791-3000

Maine considers renewable feed-in tariff

The Maine legislature is set to consider a bill that would create a feed-in tariff for renewable energy.  Maine already has a renewable portfolio standard and other incentives for investment in renewable power production.  Will Maine add a feed-in tariff to the mix?

The Maine State House, home to a consideration of feed-in tariffs.

 A feed-in tariff is a policy tool intended to encourage investment in renewable energy technologies.  Feed-in tariffs typically offer long-term contracts under which utilities purchase power fromrenewable energy producers at predictable prices, often based on the cost of generation of each technology.  Where feed-in tariffs exist, developers of renewable energy projects gain certainty about the revenues their projects will create.  This certainty helps developers secure the financing they need to build projects.

A bill proposed by Maine state senator Christopher Johnson would require the state Public Utilities Commission to establish a renewable energy resources feed-in tariff program.  An Act To Establish the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff, also known as LD 1085, has the stated purpose of encouraging the rapid and sustainable development of renewable energy resources and technology for environmentally healthy generation of electricity.  Like feed-in tariffs in other jurisdictions, it would require that utilities purchase renewably produced electricity from all qualified suppliers.  It would have the Public Utilities Commission set the rate that electric utilities must pay for such power at a level sufficient to provide revenues to operate and to attract necessary capital and investment for small renewable electric generators.

Qualified suppliers would be limited to certain small renewable electric generators.  As defined in the bill, such generators would be limited to systems up to 500 kilowatts in size, that are majority owned by a person or entity that owns less than 500 kilowatts of electricity generating capacity in Maine, and that use solar photovoltaic panels or solar thermal or concentrating solar systems, generators fueled by methane from sewage treatment facilities, landfills or agricultural waste, generators fueled by combustion of biomass, tidal power projects, or wind energy.

Existing Maine law provides incentives for the generation of electricity from renewable resources.  Like most states, Maine has a renewable portfolio standard which requires electricity suppliers to source a specified portion of their power from renewable generators.  Maine also has a community-based renewable energy pilot program which functions like a feed-in tariff for eligible projects.  A feed-in tariff would add another incentive to build relatively small (non-utility-scale) projects.

LD 1085 has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing.  It will likely come before the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology later this spring.

Maine may streamline tidal power permitting

The Maine legislature is considering a proposal to streamline the permitting process for some tidal energy projects. The bill, "An Act To Streamline the General Permit Process for Tidal Power", would relieve a perceived conflict between state and federal law over the permitting process.

Tidal energy has been harvested along the Maine coast for hundreds of years. While tide mills' heyday predated modern regulation of energy projects and their environmental impacts, anyone developing a modern tidal power project must navigate multiple layers of rules and requirements. The recent resurgence of interest in tidal energy has led to an often overlapping patchwork of regulations.

These rules can be hard to interpret, and occasionally lead to chicken-or-the-egg conundrums. For example, a 2009 Maine law created an expedited general permit process for certain small tidal power projects. Under that process, projects capable of generating up to 5 megawatts of power can qualify for an easier permitting path if their primary purpose is demonstrating or testing tidal technology. (By way of comparison, 5 megawatts is roughly equivalent to 6,705 horsepower - imagine what a tide miller could have done with that!)

Prior to filing a permit application with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection under the 2009 law, an applicant must first obtain a finding from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the project will have no significant adverse impact on environmental quality. Unfortunately, before issuing that finding federal regulators want applicants to show that they are already seeking state approval. This regulatory conflict makes it hard for people who want to develop or redevelop a tidal resource to move forward.

To fix this problem, the DEP, Senator Mike Thibodeau of Waldo County, and Representative Joyce Maker of Calais proposed an amendment to Maine law. Their bill, known as LD 437, would enable the DEP to start processing an application without needing to wait for the federal environmental assessment. After a public hearing earlier this month, the legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources voted to recommend that the bill ought to pass as amended.

Next steps for the tidal streamlining bill include consideration by the full Senate and House. Given the committee's vote, the bill seems likely to find further support in the two chambers. While its enactment may not launch a tide of new tidal power developments in Maine, relieving this piece of the regulatory tangle should help people test and demonstrate tidal power technologies old and new.

US first tidal project to come online

The nation's first commercial, grid-connected tidal energy project is scheduled to go live this month, as Ocean Renewable Power Company plans to start delivering power to the grid from its Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project.

A scene from the Maine coast: Crow Island off Great Cranberry Island, about 100 miles west of the Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project.

Earlier this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an pilot project license to Ocean Renewable Power Company Maine, LLC for its Cobscook project near Eastport, Maine.  The initial phase of ORPC's project involves a hydrokinetic turbine connected to a generator capable of producing up to 180 kilowatts of energy; after monitoring this turbine for a year, ORPC plans to expand the project to a capacity of 3 megawatts.

ORPC also won a 20-year power purchase agreement to sell the projects' output to Maine's three large electric utilities at a price escalating from 21.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.  That PPA was the result of a Maine law creating a competitive process for marine renewable energy developers to secure offtake agreements.

In a filing with the FERC earlier this week, ORPC announced that it anticipates delivering power from the Cobscook project to the mainland Bangor Hydro Electric Co. grid starting today.  According to the filing, this initial power delivery is part of the project's commissioning phase, with commencement of commercial operation expected by September 20.

Hydrokinetic projects -- generating electricity from tides, waves, and free-flowing rivers -- is a new sector of the U.S. energy portfolio.  Studies suggest that hydrokinetic resources have great potential, with tidal energy's electric production potential estimated to be 2.38 terawatt-hours per year, equal to an average power of 270 MW.  Wave energy appears to provide the larger resource, with an estimated electricity production potential of about approximately 260 TWh/yr (equal to an average power of 30,000 MW), with river in-stream electricity production potential estimated at approximately 110 TWh/yr.