Nantucket, Edgartown, UMass join forces on tidal energy

Embracing alternative energy beneath Nantucket Sound, Nantucket is forming a partnership with the Town of Edgartown and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth to utilize tidal energy generation.

The Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission Monday night unanimously endorsed an effort to team with Edgartown and file a joint application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to explore possible sites in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard waters for installing tidal energy generators and, possibly, wind turbines.

If this plan comes to fruition, both towns would generate electricity exclusively for ratepayers on their respective islands. UMass Dartmouth, meanwhile, would reap the benefits of research and produce graduate work for its students, said Planning Director Andrew Vorce.

"The difference here is the municipalities want to take the lead in this and not just sit on the sidelines and let private companies do it," said Vorce.

In contrast to the town's hesitancy to dive headfirst into wind energy projects proposed for Nantucket Sound - 61 percent of the voters in a special non-binding referendum at the April 11, 2006 town election said no to wind energy in Nantucket Sound - all the commissioners expressed their excitement for the emerging field of tidally generated electricity. They also seemed favorable towards alternative wind generation sites that would benefit Nantucket.

"I honestly see us trying to work out some kind of partnership with them [Edgartown] as the new technology starts to come out," said NP&EDC Chairman Barry Rector. "We have to learn to take control of our own destiny."

Planning Commissioner Nat Lowell agreed.

"Obviously, as anyone knows, there is a lot of current between there and Nantucket [and] we've got the opportunity to plug us into it," he said.

In order to power up Nantucket with tidal energy, Nantucket must file its preliminary permit application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by Sept. 13. The application will delineate a study area between Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard to be explored for the best possible sites for installing tidal generators (generically known as in-stream energy conversion devices). Edgartown filed its preliminary permit application on July 30 with FERC and Nantucket could become a joint filer with Edgartown by filing its own application along with a letter stating its intention to join with Edgartown's effort, said Vorce.

This partnership is designed to secure renewable energy for both towns at the cheapest possible rate rather than one set by one of two private companies - Natural Currents Energy Services and the Oceana Energy Company - already surveying island waters for possible tidal energy generation sites.

The only notice Nantucket had that these companies were applying to FERC for the rights to look at potential sites was a public announcement that ran in the Inquirer & Mirror in early July, that neither Vorce nor the commission saw, said Vorce.

"This company [Natural Currents Energy Services] didn't have a conversation with Edgartown, it didn't have a conversation with Nantucket officials, it just made its application to the FERC," said Vorce. "The thought was to join with them [Edgartown and UMass Dartmouth] and put all of our resources together."

Once FERC issues a preliminary permit to this partnership the survey can begin. In the meantime, Vorce and his staff, along with the town's renewable energy consultant, Jim Coyne, and the Energy Study Committee, will be examining all aspects of the Town of Nantucket generating electricity for its residents because they are already playing catch-up to both companies.

Natural Currents Energy Services, LLC, a Highland, N.Y.-based firm is proposing to generate three gigawatts of power by installing tidal energy generators in Nantucket Sound between Nantucket and Chappaquiddick on Martha's Vineyard. That is about 4.2 times the amount of electricity - around 70 megawatts - flowing to Nantucket right now.

Calling it the Nantucket Tidal Energy Plant, Natural Currents Energy Services is in the preliminary permitting phase of the project that under ideal review and permitting conditions would have its tidal generators running by 2011.

The Oceana Energy Company of Washington, D.C. recently got a preliminary permit from the FERC to test the waters of Vineyard Sound in an area bounded by the southwest end of Naushon Island and extending northeast on both sides of Lucas Shoal and Middle Ground, according to Oceana's preliminary permit filing with FERC.

Oceana, which is going to be building its own underwater turbines, told the FERC it would install 50 to 100 units with propeller diameters of around 35 feet in water as deep as 75 feet.

Theoretically, Oceana would like to generate 25 to 100 megawatts with each generator producing 500 kilowatts to two megawatts of electricity, roughly powering 750 homes.

Vorce said that this new partnership is not at a point where it can say how much power it would generate for

ratepayers nor when the project would come online. I