Ocean/Tidal Power Thread

[amor de cosmos]

Goin' Fishing: Two Crowdfunding Campaigns for Ocean Energy
James Montgomery
February 07, 2014 | 1 Comments

We don't get to cover ocean/tidal energy as often as some of our other renewable energy topics, so imagine our surprise when we got word of not one but two updates this week -- and both of them involving the hot topic of crowdfunding. Read on and if you like what you see, you can help contribute to their future success.

Berkeley's Seafloor Carpet

UC-Berkeley is developing what it calls a "seafloor carpet" to harvest underwater hydrokinetics. The system uses a thin sheet of material (rubber for now, elastic polymer eventually) on top of hydraulic actuators, cylinders, and tubes; as the "carpet" moves up and down it creates hydraulic pressure that is converted to power. (The motion of the sheet also helps dampen the surface waves above, much like a muddy seafloor does, another possibly attractive benefit.) Here's the project's Web site describing the system and its evolution, and here's a video explaining how it works. In a prototype the team said they converted more than 90 percent of incoming wave energy, with 5.64 percent efficiency. One square meter, they say, could generate enough electricity to power two households; scaled up to 100 m2 could equal the output of a 6,400 m2 solar array. Or it could be put to use for desalination or filling pump-storage reservoirs.



Crowd Energy's Ocean Energy Turbine

Another ocean energy startup is taking its pitch to the crowdfunding masses with a KickStarter campaign in the coming weeks to support a new version of its "Ocean Energy Turbine." Unlike the Berkeley group, it is going after somewhat deeper ocean currents (ideally >100 feet) with a slow rotation, high-torque direct-drive turbine initially sized as small as 30 meters across, that the group claims can harvest the energy equivalent of 30 propeller-style turbines. The slower motion also helps avoid impact to nearby wildlife, Crowd Enerrgy notes. It is not offering many technology details, but the Kickstarter page offers a few insights: several patents are being filed for the aluminum turbine with carbon-fiber composite blades; the turbine is modular, and 90 percent of it can be changed out for maintenance; corrosion and "bio-fouling" will be addressed through bio-friendly coatings, metal isolation, and "cathodic protection"; and excess shaft torque would be put to use for desalination.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...r-ocean-energy

[amor de cosmos]

Lockheed and Ocean Power Plan World’s Biggest Wave-Energy Plant
By Justin Doom
Feb 11, 2014 1:59 PM PT

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the world’s largest defense contractor, and Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (OPTT) agreed to jointly develop the world’s largest wave-energy project off the coast of Australia.

The 62.5-megawatt project will be built off the coast of Victoria in three stages using Ocean Power equipment, Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed said today in a statement.

The completed project will power about 10,000 homes as part of Australia’s effort to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. It’s intended to showcase the commercial viability of using the motion of the seas as a source of electricity, Lockheed said.

Ocean Power’s PowerBuoys move up and down as waves rise and fall, converting mechanical energy into electricity that’s sent to shore through underwater cables. The project is receiving funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...rgy-plant.html

[amor de cosmos]

Lockheed Martin’s Wave Energy Plunge Buoys OPT (Again!)
By Pete Danko
Marine Power, Renewable Energy
February 13, 2014

Investors were excited this Tuesday by the announcement that Lockheed Martin had struck a deal to work with Ocean Power Technologies on a planned wave energy project in Victoria, Australia. OPT’s stock, which had been trading at $2.30 at Monday’s market close, immediately leaped and the ascent continued on Wednesday, when OPTT finally closed at $4.68.

It makes some sense when you think about it: Lockheed Martin is a giant, established company, so its involvement in the Victoria project could be seen as a sign that the project is moving forward and that OPT’s business in the fledgling wave industry can grow.

What’s interesting, though, is that almost exactly the same thing happened about a year and a half ago. On July 11, 2012, OPT put out a press release announcing a deal with Lockheed Martin under which the aerospace company would “assist with the design of Ocean Power Technologies’ (OPT) PowerBuoy technology, lead the production and system integration of the wave-energy converters and support overall program management” in Victoria. Here’s what we reported the next day:

The announcement sent OPT’s stock soaring. It had nearly doubled at one point during the trading day Wednesday before settling at $3.55, a 72 percent gain from its opening price of $2.08. Some 2.8 million OPT shares were traded, almost 100 times the stock’s average daily volume of 29,795.

http://www.earthtechling.com/2014/02...oys-opt-again/

[amor de cosmos]

Plans Submitted for 320-MW Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon Project
Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd. applied for consent for what could be the world's largest tidal lagoon project
RenewableEnergyWorld.com Editors
February 11, 2014 | 3 Comments

Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd. has submitted an application for the first phase of its proposed 320-MW Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon plant. The $1.2-billion tidal project will be set off the shores of Wales and is set to span six miles.

This proposal comes off the heels of the rejected $40-billion Severn Barrage tidal project back in September 2013.

Developers plan to start construction by 2015 and commission the project by 2018. If approved, Tidal Lagoon Power says that it will be the first of five separate lagoons planned to enter U.K. waters by 2023, which will likely supply 10 percent of the U.K.’s domestic electricity needs with more than 7,300 MW of capacity.

Swansea Bay would be the world’s first tidal project, and according to Mike Shorrock, chief executive officer of Tidal Lagoon Power, the more lagoons commissioned, the lower the project and energy costs. He predicts that tidal projects will eventually be able to compete with, and be cheaper than, offshore wind and eventually new nuclear plants. “Economies of scale bring immediate advantage…A second lagoon will require a lower level of support than offshore wind,” he said in a release.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...l-lagoon-plant
http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/15/...-moves-closer/

[amor de cosmos]

FERC Grants New Permit for 240-MW Alaska Tidal Energy Project
Project developer gets two extra years to explore project feasibility
Barry Cassell, Chief Analyst, GenerationHub
February 17, 2014 | 0 Comments

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Feb. 12, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a successive preliminary permit for Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy Corp. for a tidal energy project in Alaska.

In February 2013, Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy filed an application proposing to continue to study the feasibility of the Turnagain Arm Tidal Electric Generation Project. The project would be located on the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet and adjacent lands of the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska.

The proposed project would consist of: an 8-mile-long tidal fence situated between Fire Island in the Municipality of Anchorage and Point Possession in the Kenai Peninsula Borough consisting of 24, 10-MW low-head, bi-directional horizontal bulb turbines for a total installed capacity of 240 MW; a 2-mile-long, 1-mile-wide water storage tank attached to the tidal fence; one control building/substation onshore near Anchorage and one near Point Possession; an 18-mile-long, 230-kV submerged transmission line connecting the tidal fence to the existing Chugach Electric Association substation at Point Woronzof in Anchorage and a new substation at Point Possession; and a 28-mile-long, 230-kV above-ground transmission line running parallel to an existing Homer Electric Association transmission line corridor and extending from Point Possession to the existing HEA Nikiski substation.

The proposed project would have an estimated average annual generation of 1,271,950 megawatt-hours.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...energy-project

[amor de cosmos]

Morgan Stanley-Backed Atlantis Raises $33 Million for Tidal Plan
20 February 2014

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Atlantis Resources Corp., a Morgan Stanley-backed maker of tidal turbines, raised 20 million pounds ($33 million) with a European grant, funds from a government institution and an initial public offering in London.

The Singapore-based company raised 12 million pounds by selling about 12.8 million new shares at 94 pence each on London’s Alternative Investment Market, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cornelius said. That values Atlantis at 72 million pounds.

Most investors were London-based institutions, with some from continental Europe, Cornelius said. Morgan Stanley, which had 45.7 percent before the placing, didn’t sell any shares.

“We chose AIM because people in the U.K. market are familiar with the renewables sector and there is good support,” Cornelius said. “People understand the landscape here.”

Atlantis also raised 8 million pounds through a cash grant from the European Commission and from a government institution that offered non-recourse financing repaid from future profits.

Funds investing in renewable energy have listed in London in the past year as investors seek steady dividends that beat returns on government bonds. Ingenious Media Holdings Plc last month said it was planning to raise 160 million pounds.

The tidal-power industry is in its infancy, with developers testing prototypes in the hope of bringing systems to market. As yet there are no commercial-scale projects in operation.

“It’s a growth story because we have a global portfolio and it’s a new and emerging market,” Cornelius said by phone. “From that perspective I think people tend to find it really interesting. It’s not solar and it’s not wind.”

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/morg...or-tidal-plan/

[amor de cosmos]

Ministers say yes to tidal and wave energy
Rebecca Cooke | 26 February 2014

Ministers from Scotland and Northern Ireland have approved nearly £5 million for new tidal and wave energy projects.

At the biggest gathering of its kind in the world, RenewableUK’s Wave and Tidal Energy conference, ministers re-affirmed their commitment to developing the UK’s abundant marine resources to their full potential with the major funding announcement.

Fergus Ewing, Scottish Energy Minister, told the conference that Scotland’s marine energy sector will receive a funding injection worth nearly £5 million. Commenting on the decision he said: “Scotland is at the forefront of developing offshore and low carbon energy generation technology with some of the world’s greatest wind, wave and tidal resources heavily concentrated in the waters around our country. Today’s allocation of almost £5 million in Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund and Renewable Energy Investment Funding highlights our commitment to supporting the growth of the marine energy sector in Scotland. The funding announced today will help facilitate some of the country’s most innovative and exciting marine energy projects and I am delighted we are able to assist these companies.”

The Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF) is a £103 million Scottish government fund created to support the renewables industry in Scotland. The Marine Renewable Commercialisation Fund is also a Scottish-based fund which aims to bring marine energy to the forefront of the commercial energy market.

At the same conference, Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland's Assembly Member and department of enterprise, trade and investment minister, said: “The renewables sector is of vital importance to the economy, to the environment and to the security of our long term energy needs.”

She added: “There are significant business opportunities across the wider energy sector and my department has been working to match those opportunities with the specific strengths of our local businesses. We have around 230 companies active in this sector”.

Marine energy has had something of a revival in the UK with plans announced for the world’s first energy generating and recreational tidal lagoon in Swansea and further talk about tidal lagoon in Somerset , which could help prevent the kind of flooding the UK has suffered in recent weeks.

Mindful of its natural advantages in wind, hydro and marine energy, Scotland has lofty renewable energy ambitions, with First Minister Alex Salmond having previously said he wants the nation to be 100 per cent powered by renewables by 2050. Scotland has also thrown its weight behind hydro-power. Plans to implement a new generation of hydro-power that could see as much as 1040MW generated by hydro plants if the planned expansion goes ahead.

http://www.trillionfund.com/minister...d-wave-energy/

[amor de cosmos]

Tidal lagoon power 'could be competitive with gas', study suggests
Developer-sponsored research calculates costs of electricity from portfolio of three lagoons would fall dramatically
By Will Nichols
21 Mar 2014

Tidal lagoon power could eventually prove cheaper than energy from offshore wind, nuclear reactors, and potentially even gas power stations, a study will report today.

The findings of research conducted by consultants Pӧyry for developer Tidal Lagoon Power (TLP) calculates a portfolio of three tidal lagoons would cost taxpayers an average of £111 per megawatt hour of electricity produced over a 35-year contract.

Tidal Lagoon Power is planning a 240MW tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay as the first in a series of projects it believes can harness the UK's huge tidal energy reserves to meet 10 per cent of the UK's electricity demand by the early 2020s. While lagoons 2 and 3 are in the pipeline it has not yet revealed proposed locations.

According to Pӧyry, the first project is the most expensive at £168/MWh, but this falls to £130/MWh for the second lagoon and £92/MWh for the third. The government's central projection for the cost of offshore wind in 2021 is £131/MWh, although contracts would only last 15 years, while in October ministers signed a 35-year deal with EDF for a new nuclear reactor in Somerset at £92.50/MWh. The price of lagoon 3 is broadly similar to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) assessment of the cost of onshore wind, large-scale solar PV, nuclear and gas-fired generation.

According to the report, the reduction in cost is driven by larger sites with higher tidal ranges and does not rely on an assumption of "technology learning".

Moreover, when a 3.5 per cent social discount rate is applied over the projected operational life of well over a century, the study found even the first lagoon has levelised costs competitive with offshore wind - while the second and third would be cheaper than gas power stations.

TPL said further cost falls could be possible as lagoons two and three have not yet benefited from an optimisation process that increased projected power output from the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon by 20 per cent, and added that its pipeline include projects still larger than lagoon three.

"This study clearly demonstrates that tidal lagoons can rapidly become one of the cheapest sources of electricity in the UK," said Mark Shorrock, chief executive of TLP. "The more water we impound, the more power we produce, the less support we require. It really is that simple. And with an operating life of over 120 years, tidal lagoons offer future generations even lower cost electricity following their 35-year period of strike price support."

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/anal...study-suggests

[amor de cosmos]

FERC Approves License for Cutting-edge Tidal Energy Project
This 700-kW project will be located in Washington state.
Barry Cassell, Chief Analyst, GenerationHub
March 21, 2014 | 0 Comments

Houston, Texas -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on March 20 issued a 10-year pilot license to Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County for the proposed Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal Project to be located in the Puget Sound in the state of Washington.

The 600-kW Admiralty Inlet Project is an experimental project designed to determine whether commercial development of the tidal energy resources of Puget Sound is commercially viable. The March 20 action authorizes Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County to study, monitor, and evaluate the environmental, economic, and cultural effects of hydrokinetic energy.

“The Admiralty Inlet Project is an innovative attempt to harness previously untapped energy resources,” said Acting FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur. “I look forward to the results of the experimental project and congratulate Snohomish for undertaking it.”

In issuing the license, FERC said it carefully considered the effect the Admiralty Inlet Project would have on sections of an under-sea fiber optic communication cable between the United States and Japan. FERC concluded that, with appropriate safety measures, the Admiralty Inlet Project would not pose a risk to the cable.

The pilot license contains measures to protect fish, wildlife, cultural and aesthetic resources, navigation and existing infrastructure. The license also contains several monitoring and adaptive management requirements to adequately protect against any adverse impacts from the project.

The project includes: two approximately 19.2-foot-high, 300-kW OpenHydro tidal turbines (Turbine 1 and Turbine 2) each mounted on a triangular subsea base; adaptable monitoring devices attached to each turbine base; two approximately 7,000-foot-long, 4-kV trunk cables, extending from each turbine to an onshore cable termination vault; an approximately 3.9-foot-long, 5.8-foot-wide, 2.9-foot-high onshore cable termination vault; two 40-foot-long conduits to convey the cables from the cable termination vault to a cable control building; a 24-foot-wide, 30-foot-long onshore cable control building to house power and monitoring equipment; a 17.2-kV step-up transformer located adjacent to the cable control building; and a 10-foot-long, buried 7.2-kV transmission line from the transformer to a connection with Puget Sound Energy’s system.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...energy-project

[amor de cosmos]

Pioneering research offers new insight into improved wave energy testing

Pioneering research could provide a significant boost in the vital quest to harness wave power as a viable renewable energy source for the future.

Scientists from the University of Exeter have studied how wave energy developers can more accurately measure, and predict the wave conditions within wave energy test sites.

The research, which is published in leading scientific journal Energy, deployed wave measurement buoys and used wave modelling to show how variations in wave size and strength could be resolved.

The results should aid developers to better predict sea conditions within wave energy test sites, which is the crucial factor governing how much energy can be produced.

This latest study is part of ongoing research by the University and key partners into waves as a renewable energy source. With ongoing support from the Regional Growth Fund, these methods are now being applied to the Wave Hub and FabTest energy test sites in Cornwall, to support industrial partners testing at these sites.

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/feature...365223_en.html

[amor de cosmos]

New magnetic materials for extracting energy from tides

Scientists from Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (UC3M) are participating in a European research project that involves developing a new type of tidal energy generator that will be cheaper and more efficient. The device would replace conventional magnetic materials for new materials that are made using an alternative technology.

The objective of the MAGNETIDE project is to develop a new type of generator that transforms the mechanical energy produced by the movement of the tides into electric energy. The researchers have modified the generator’s design so that components manufactured using PIM, Powder Injection Moulding, could be installed. This would reduce the cost of these systems as well as increasing their efficiency by up to 30%, according to the scientists’ calculations. “These generators use magnetic components that we are producing using PIM technology, which turns out to be more versatile when it comes to modifying the compositions and makes it possible to get the parts for a lower price,” explains the researcher who is coordinating UC3M’s participation in this project, the tenured professor José Manuel Torralba, of the university’s Powder Technology Research Group (Grupo de Tecnología de Polvos -GTP).

Powder injection moulding is proving to be a real alternative in the manufacture of complex parts with a high rate of production. This is confirmed by a paper that these researchers recently published in the “International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties”, in which they describe the different stages in the manufacturing process and the solutions that it has provided with respect to the Powder Technology Group.

http://portal.uc3m.es/portal/page/po...netide_project

• Video Link

[amor de cosmos]

Mar 28, 2014
DCNS-Backed OpenHydro to Install Commercial-Scale Tidal System

March 28 (Bloomberg) — OpenHydro Group Ltd., backed by French marine engineer DCNS SA, will install a demonstration of its tidal energy technology on a commercial scale in Canada.

The Nova Scotia Department of Energy chose OpenHydro to set up a grid-connected 4-megawatt plant at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. Two turbines will be deployed next year that are capable of providing power to more than 1,000 homes. Fundy Bay has a tidal surge as high as 15 meters (49 feet), the world’s highest.

OpenHydro plans to eventually expand the project to 300 megawatts, it said in the statement. There are no commercial-scale wave or tidal projects in the world yet as developers continue to strive to bring their technologies to market.

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/dcns...-tidal-system/

[amor de cosmos]

Apr 7, 2014
Atlantis to Test Tidal-Power Turbine in China With Dongfang

April 7 (Bloomberg) — Atlantis Resources Corp., a Morgan Stanley-backed maker of tidal turbines, will work with Dongfang Electrical Machinery Co. to test its technology in China.

The program, an extension of a previous agreement between the companies, will see Atlantis test its device onshore in Hangzhou, in China’s southeast, the Singapore-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Thereafter it plans to install a 1-megawatt turbine offshore Zhejiang province that will be the first commercial-scale tidal turbine in China, it said.

Dongfang also made Atlantis the sales agent in markets outside of China for products including hydropower, pumped storage and tidal-range technologies, the company said.

“As well as helping to develop our supply chain and identify sales and project development opportunities in China, the agency agreement will have a near-term positive impact on our cash flows as we will receive a commission on the sale of any product or service secured by Dongfang from an Atlantis-initiated opportunity,” Chief Executive Officer Tim Cornelius said in the statement.

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/atla...with-dongfang/

Underwater Ocean Energy Turbine Harvests Vast & Powerful Marine Currents
by Bridgette Meinhold, 04/07/14

Ocean currents contain a massive amount of energy that's usually hidden beneath the waves - but a new Ocean Energy Turbine has the potential to harvest this renewable resource. Designed by Florida-based Crowd Energy, the Ocean Energy Turbine is low-speed, high-torque generator that sits on the sea floor and utilizes the steady power of the currents to generate electricity. Hidden under the water, the Ocean Energy Turbine is relatively safe from weather, it doesn't obscure views, and it has access to consistent and reliable ocean currents. Now it just needs funding so that it can reach the next stage in development.

According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, if you utilized just 1/1000th of the energy potential available in the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic, you could supply Florida with 35% of its electricity. Extrapolate that out across all the major currents globally and there’s plenty of potential to supply the entire world with electricity. Florida-based Crowd Energy was started by two brothers and marine experts, Todd and Phillip Janca, who want to harness that energy. They have been working for eight years on a sub-sea water turbine that will safely and efficiently generate energy from marine currents.

The Ocean Energy Turbine is a three-bladed vertical axis turbine with large paddles featuring integrated, movable blades. As the current begins to push on a paddle the blades flip shut, offering more surface area for the current to push against. As the paddle spins around, the blades open back up to offer less resistance. The turbine has been designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the marine environment while minimizing impact on aquatic life. The high-torque, low-speed turbine operates at speeds similar to swimming fish and should not present any physical risk to life, and it also makes minimal noise so as to not disturb marine life acoustically.

http://inhabitat.com/underwater-ocea...rine-currents/

[amor de cosmos]

Apr 10, 2014
OpenHydro to Build $833 Million Tidal-Power Plant in Alderney

April 10 (Bloomberg) — OpenHydro Group Ltd., majority owned by French engineering company DCNS SA, agreed to work with Alderney Renewable Energy Ltd. to develop a 600 million-euro ($833 million) tidal-power plant.

The Race Tidal Ltd. venture will have a capacity of about 300 megawatts and is expected to comprise 150 turbines off the coast of Alderney in the Channel Islands, Dublin-based OpenHydro said today in an e-mailed statement. The project is due to be complete in 2020, when it will produce enough power for more than 150,000 homes

OpenHydro, which owns 31 percent of Alderney Renewable, will make the turbines for the project in France. Alderney Renewable is also developing a power interconnector between France, Alderney and Britain under a venture with Transmission Investment LLP. This will enable tidal power from Alderney to be exported to European markets and energy to be traded between France and Britain, according to the statement.

http://about.bnef.com/bnef-news/open...t-in-alderney/

[amor de cosmos]

New Tidal Turbines to be Installed in Canada’s Bay of Fundy
By EcoSeed | Mon, 14 April 2014 21:39

Siemens business Marine Current Turbines Ltd., Bluewater Energy Services B.V., and Minas Energy cooperate to install first of its kind tidal turbine in Canada’s Bay of Fundy.

Under the project, M.C.T. and Bluewater have agreed to jointly develop a 2 megawatt floating tidal current turbine, called SeaGen F. The turbine will be the first of its kind to be installed in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, in cooperation with Nova Scotian project developer Minas Energy.

M.C.T. will impart its expertise in tidal current turbines; while Bluewater will contribute its know-how in the field of floating platforms and subsea moorings. Minas will be in charge of leasing the project site from Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, or FORCE.

It is estimated that the turbines will be able to produce enough clean energy to meet the demands of 1,800 Nova Scotian households.

With a tidal range of up to 15 meters, current speeds reaching 5.5 meters per second, and with Nova Scotia’s feed-in-tariff, the project location makes it one of the most attractive economic sites in the world, according to M.C.T.

http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-Ne...-of-Fundy.html

[amor de cosmos]

Cleantech, Finance, Technology
Wave, Tidal Energy Developers Think Small to Break Through
By Pete Danko on April 22, 2014 at 12:00 PM

Industry leaders gathered last week at the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference in Seattle, mindful that wave and tidal are clean energy’s infants, on the cusp of toddlerhood, struggling to get up on their feet, while older siblings wind and solar sprint to new records.

Nobody has lost faith that the vast energy of the seas and rivers will one day be harnessed with environmentally friendly hydrokinetic devices; rather, marine renewable energy players are expressing hard-won awareness of just how challenging their undertaking is – to settle on technologies, to bring down costs and to obtain financing.

“I never thought it would take this long,” said Resolute Marine Energy CEO Bill Staby, who founded the Boston-based company in 2007. Nor did Christopher Sauer. “If you had told me it would take ten years to get to where we are, I don’t know what I would have done,” said Sauer, who began at Maine’s Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) in 2004 as chief technology officer and has been the company’s CEO since 2006.

Staby and Sauer and their colleagues remain passionate and hopeful, but with recalibrated expectations. In other words, forget for now about big projects that send massive amounts of energy to the grid in competition with wind and solar (let alone shale gas).

“We need to do smaller projects first,” said Sauer, whose company began to do just that in 2012, when it struck a U.S. first by putting a tidal device in the water and sending energy ashore, in Maine. “We need to deploy devices and get the operating data, including environmental – that’s very, very important.”

http://breakingenergy.com/2014/04/22...break-through/

[amor de cosmos]

Interest In Ocean Wave Energy Growing
By Rory Johnston | Tue, 29 April 2014 22:30

Advancements in solar and wind technologies have been well covered in the media, but developments in the pursuit of capturing the potential energy from powerful ocean waves have failed to garner the same degree of interest.

Decades after solar and wind power became viable renewable energy sources, wave power still lags behind.

That’s despite the fact that analysts believe wave power has the potential to provide as much as 25 percent of the United States’ electricity needs, and say marine power — a combination of wave and tidal — could meet more than 75 percent of the U.K.’s needs.

Wave energy presents a unique technological challenge because a wave is a much more dynamic source of energy than wind or solar. “You’ve got [an energy] conversion technology that really no one seems to have settled on a design that is robust, reliable, and efficient,” says George Hagerman, a research associate at Virginia Tech University’s Advanced Research Institute. “With wind, you’re harnessing the energy as a function of the speed of the wind. In wave energy, you’ve not only got the height of the wave, but you’ve got the period of the wave, so it becomes a more complicated problem.”

But a renewed interest in wave technology has several small companies tripping over each other to find funding and roll out their own take on how to extract energy from waves. There are currently no commercial-scale wave power stations operating, but a commercial scale wave farm operated off the Portuguese coast from 2008 to 2009.

http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Ener...y-Growing.html

[amor de cosmos]

Energy Department Bets $10 Million On Bigger, Better Wave Energy
By Guest Post Editor's Pick, Featured, Green Living April 30, 2014
Via Clean Technica. By: Tina Casey, April-29-14 11:00:17 PM

Back in 2012 the Navy announced big plans for expanding its wave energy test site in Hawaii, to accommodate more ambitious technology. It looks like all systems are go now, and the Energy Department has just announced a new $10 million funding opportunity for testing two deep-water wave energy conversion (WEC) devices at the site.

The test facility (formally, the Wave Energy Test Site) at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Oahu has been in use for about ten years now for demo-scale devices at about 30 meters. The new $10 million in funding will go to test larger devices at 60 and 80 meters, which according to our source at NavyTimes.com is about where you’d want them to be for producing electricity at commercial scale.

No More Fooling Around With Wave Power

Now that the Navy has a commercial-grade test facility available, the Energy Department is not messing around with small fry. The new WEC funding opportunity is open only to WEC developers that fit this description:

The Water Program is seeking applications from wave energy conversion technology developers that are in advanced stages of technology development and are prepared to design, build and test technology at close to full-scale in the ocean environment.

Aside from checking out how the devices perform, the Energy Department is going to scrutinize their levelized cost of energy in order to formulate cost comparisons with other energy sources.

If you think you have the right stuff to apply for funding, here’s the link, which includes sign-up information for an application webinar.

http://earthtechling.com/2014/04/ene...r-wave-energy/

[amor de cosmos]

Published May 23, 2014 10:24 AM
World's First Community Tidal Turbine Scheme Starts Generating Power

The world's first community-owned tidal power turbine has started exporting electricity to the local grid, the Scottish Government has announced.

The Nova Innovation turbine will power up to 30 homes, a locally owned ice plant and Cullivoe Harbour Industrial Estate on North Yell, Shetland.

The 30KW turbine sits on the seabed in the Bluemull Sound at a depth of over 100ft and consists of a propeller that is spun by the power of the tide as it flows past. The rotating propeller drives a generator that produces electricity, which is transmitted onshore through a 1km subsea cable.

The project, developed by Leith-based tidal energy company Nova Innovation in partnership with North Yell Development Council, has been funded by the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), Shetland Islands Council and North Yell Development Council.

http://www.enn.com/sustainability/article/47423

[amor de cosmos]

Next-gen renewable energy: Harnessing the Bay of Fundy’s tides with underwater windmills
Special to Financial Post | June 12, 2014 | Last Updated: Jun 12 9:26 AM ET

For anyone hoping to harness tidal energy, the most powerful force to be reckoned with is the tidal surge in the Bay of Fundy. The Bay’s Minas Passage in Nova Scotia is the focal point for the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE), an organization that has drawn together a consortium of technology developers, researchers, utility suppliers and government in an effort to harness clean, renewable in-stream tidal energy.

“We get a lot of jokes around ‘May the force be with you’,” laughs Matthew Lumley, communications director for FORCE.

While other projects are taking place in various corners of the world, the Bay of Fundy is unique in terms of the volume of water and the speed it moves, he explains. “It’s known to have the highest tides in the world. But what’s more important from an energy generation standpoint is water velocity, which has a direct impact on extractable power.”

When water reaches the shallower regions of the Minas Passage, velocity peaks at five metres per second. Total extractable power at that speed is calculated to be 7,000 megawatts. “Modelling suggests 2,500 megawatts are safely extractable without creating drag on the tides,” Lumley says. “That’s an enormous amount of power.”

A key component that shows great promise for optimizing this renewable resource is a technology known as tidal in-stream energy conservation (TISEC). “In other words, it’s a windmill that harnesses kinetic energy through the passive flow of water through blades, making it a benign solution,” Lumley explains. “In the last 15 years, there have been 150 different designs in varying stages of development.”

The first turbine went into the water in 2009, he says. “The fact we could deploy a turbine where we wanted and align it with the tidal flow to recover power was a huge step. The problem was the current was two-and-a-half times more powerful than we modelled for. But we learned a lot.”

Mark Baker, sales and business development manager, marine renewables for GE Power Conversion in Rugby, England, says it’s not unusual for tidal developers to build smaller-scale models to put through an exhaustive series of model tests before scaling them up to full size. “The industry is now moving positively forward, with full-scale testing of these devices and planned tidal arrays up to 10MW. For the most part, we’re talking to tidal developers that are very advanced with their designs.”

The present emphasis is on connecting multiple turbines into tidal arrays. “The challenge for developers is once the devices generate electricity, how do they get that onto the grid? You have to take that AC voltage and condition it using variable-speed drives and inverter boxes that enable safe and grid-compliant connection.”

http://business.financialpost.com/20...ter-windmills/