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Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) signed an agreement with the City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) and the Golden Gate Energy Company to conduct a comprehensive study to assess the possibilities for harnessing the tides in San Francisco Bay.
In addition to being clean and renewable, tidal power offers the advantage of being highly predictable and reliable.
PG&E is committing to provide up to $1.5 million to fund research by third-party experts, dovetailing with up to $346,000 contributed by CCSF for feasibility studies and stakeholder outreach.
"Exploring the potential for harnessing the tides in the Golden Gate to deliver new supplies of clean power to our customers is one of the most exciting renewable energy possibilities being explored anywhere in the world today," said PG&E Chief Executive Officer Tom King.
Golden Gate Energy, which currently holds key federal regulatory permits necessary to study the San Francisco Bay location, will work cooperatively to support the effort.
"With our own Climate Action Plan that exceeds the Kyoto Protocols, San Francisco is among the most environmentally progressive cities in the country," said Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco.
In addition to being clean and renewable, tidal power offers the advantage of being highly predictable and reliable. In a 2006 study, the Electric Power Research Institute identified San Francisco Bay as one of the world's most abundant potential resources for electricity generation using tidal power technology.
"San Francisco Here We Come"
Rising tides, changing sides, flowing in and out the bay,
Water moving swiftly back and forth to tax and toll and pay,
As the moon and the sun play tug of war upon the salty sea,
Pulling hemispheric oceans with the might of gravity,
Cosmic forces from all ages now controlled for good of men,
And the spin of turbines to the Earth will thankful message send,
adrianakau2aol.com
The article would be more insteresting if it described the technology involved in tidal energy generation.
Mayer Gavin Newsome says "...San Francisco is among the most environmentally progressive cities in the country..." I suppose this is laudable, if one is trying to play one-up. It might mean more if we could see a ranking of measurable indices among those of leading world cities, and would mean even more if we saw San Francisco's (and other cities') performance against an objective set of goals applied against all major cities. As it is, Newsome's comment is just a self-serving plug that gives no real assessment of progress toward total environmental impact quality.
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