Nantucket waters among first for tidal energy
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Roger Bason's Natural Currents Energy Services is not the first power generation firm to dip its toes into the relatively new field of tidal energy on the Cape and Islands.

The Oceana Energy Company of Washington, D.C., which recently received a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), is testing 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.

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

Charlie Cooper, Director of Environmental Permitting and Planning for the TRC Environmental Corp. of Lowell, Mass., Oceana's permitting consultant for this project, said theoretically Oceana would like to generate 25 to 100 megawatts.

The application also revealed that each generator could produce 500 kilowatts to two megawatts of electricity, roughly powering 750 homes.

"The project is in the feasibility phase looking at whether the site has feasibility and permitability for the number of devises that could be sited there and be compatible with navigation," he said.

With their relatively new adaptation of hydroelectric technology, tidal energy companies like Oceana and Natural Currents Energy Services are tapping what both believe to be a much more reliable source of renewable energy than wind or solar, because ocean currents are not yet impacted by the vagaries of topside weather, although rising sea levels and temperatures may change that.

"For the next several thousand years, you're going to see tidal flows at a certain rate," said John Topping, Oceana's vice president and one of its investors. "If you're a utility, what you want is predictability, and that's something that is not available in other renewables."

Oceana is betting on this strategy with 11 installations planned for the waters around San Francisco, one in Alaskan waters, and others in the East River in New York City, off Portsmouth, N.H. and another near Kennebunkport, Maine.

"It's a strategy that is to trying to develop something that, nationwide, has the potential of being extremely competitive," said Topping. "Tidal energy has the potential to be very cost effective going head to head with some of the cheaper forms of fossil fuels."

Worldwide, tidal energy, according the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), is an emerging technology with great potential. At the time of the release of its North American Tidal In-Stream Conversion Technology Feasibility Study on June 11, 2006, EPRI listed tidal energy installations in France putting out 240 megawatts, one in Russia generating .5 megawatts and a third in Nova Scotia emitting 20 megawatts. In the study, EPRI identified seven states and provinces - including Alaska, Washington, California, Massachusetts, Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia - that had the most potential for successful tidal energy plants, and stressed in its conclusions that the time is now.

"We believe that this study makes a compelling case for investing in tidal energy technology research, development and demonstration in the U.S and Canada starting with multiple demonstration projects as soon as possible,"

said EPRI. I