Is Marine Renewable Energy Ready for Prime Time?

Not at all. In fact, to the contrary, broken projects are a sign of tangible progress because it means that projects are actually getting into the water to generate data. Real operating experience is critical to the eventual success of the industry, but over the past few years, lack of funding and regulatory barriers kept demonstration projects from moving forward. As important as laboratory testing and computer simulations are, field testing and resulting improvements are a critical step in any new product development cycle.

Currently, Verdant Power has a test facility that has been operating for nearly a year, while Finavera just completed a test of a buoy. Although Finavera's buoy sank, the demonstration enabled Finavera to gather valuable data and also conclude that this particular iteration of its technology would not be cost effective. In this regard, the demonstration of AquaBuoy 2 was a success.

In the case of Verdant Power, its engineers have worked over the past several months with specialty metal fabricators to strengthen its blade construction and mounting fixtures and engaged the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to provide additional testing and design confirmation. The replacement blade system is now awaiting redeployment in early spring so that system testing and monitoring can be resumed. Given the earlier successes of the remainder of its overall system we should anticipate once again witnessing meaningful production from this demonstration site.

 Ireland’s Ocean Energy Buoy that had
18 months of successful operation

Expect more demonstrations over the next several months. In fact, at the time of this writing, Ocean Renewable Power Company is deploying its OCGen tidal turbine in Eastport, Maine; Ireland's Ocean Energy, Ltd recently completed 8 months of successful wave technology testing, Ocean Power Technologies has been testing its PowerBuoy off the shore of New Jersey since 1997 — and others are planning deployments in early 2008.

Ocean Renewable Power Company's Eastport, Maine
deployment of its OCGen Turbine on Dec. 8, 2007

The fact that the industry has experience and can now learn from actual demonstrations will yield more data about how these technologies operate and, ultimately, will lead to more successful commercial projects. Further, the fact that some technologies encountered unexpected hurdles — in part, because these pioneering companies are pushing the envelope — demonstrates the importance of allowing wave and tidal developers to get projects into the water and test them in real operating conditions.

In the case of Verdant Power, its East River demonstration has two empirical objectives — operational performance and, also, environmental impact. The total generation of the five generator turbines of the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) 6-Pack Free Flow System Array fed approximately 40 MWh into the NYC grid. This is an unprecedented accomplishment on several fronts — for the first time megawatt hours of reliable, predictable, grid connected electricity were delivered from a Free Flow System, and the total of over 7,000 operational hours far exceeds any other demonstration and test of this technology. To generate Free Flow hydropower into the grid, and do it efficiently from the flows in a tidal estuary, every technology link in the following chain must work properly:

Hydrodynamic performance of the blades, rotor, fairings, pylons, yawing function, and mounting.

1. Mechanical performance of the gearbox, shaft, seals, bearings, couplings, and generator.

2. Electrical performance of the generator, cabling, generator control circuit, and grid connection

With RITE, Verdant demonstrated simultaneous successful performance in each of these areas. While several of the key technologies were previously proven in lab, scale model, and prototype testing, several of these accomplishments are entirely new technologies that worked perfectly the first time, in this first-ever deployment. The turbines also experienced structural failures of the rotors — both blades and hubs. These specific failures relate to longevity but not to performance capability, which with demonstration has been proven.

Ireland’s Open Hydro Tidal Turbine deployed at EMEC

"It typically takes 5 to 10 years for a technology to progress from concept-only to deployment of a long-term commercial prototype" according to Roger Bedard of the Electric Power Research Institute. "Now that we're getting projects into the water, we're on the home stretch. It's the commercial plant pilot demonstrations, with all their trial and error triumphs, that typically bring us over the hill into commercial operations."

At the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland a world first was achieved when Pelamis, a wave energy converter developed by Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power (formerly Ocean Power Delivery), generated electricity for the National Grid from EMEC's wave test site off Billia Croo, Stromness. A second test site for tidal devices off the island of Eday has also recently been opened by Dublin-based OpenHydro.

 Scotland’s Pelamis Wave Power is
going commercial in Portugal in early 2008

We can't expect perfection from any technology the first time out. Note the 1879 light bulb success of Thomas Edison, with 40 hours of operation being claimed. He went to 1,200 hours the following year. This may be likened to Marine Current Turbines' (MCT) 200 hours during their first 18 months of operation, followed by Verdant's 7,000 hours. Look for more from Verdant's RITE project as they re-furbish in early 2008. If we can reduce the regulatory and permitting hurdles that keep so many from taking the plunge we'll see continued advances. In the meantime, what we're seeing right now is what progress and innovation look like — if we give it a chance.

Sean O,Neill is co-founder and president of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition and principal of Symmetrix Public Relations & Communication Strategies where he serves the non-profit, energy, and human resources sectors. He has provided public affairs and communications support for energy projects in 18 states during the past twenty years.

Carolyn Elefant is a founding officer and serves as CEO and General Counsel for the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition (OREC). She is founder and principal attorney in the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant (LOCE) and also serves as counsel to the Law Offices of Scott Hempling.  Prior to founding LOCE Ms. Elefant worked as an associate attorney for the law firm of Duncan and Allen, a national energy boutique located in Washington D.C. from 1990-1993 and served as an attorney advisor with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from 1988 to 1990. In addition, from 1994 through 1997, Ms. Elefant held an adjunct faculty position with the University of Maryland University College Paralegal Studies Program where she taught contract law.