WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has proposed a 25 percent cut in the research and development budget for one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the Northwest wave and tidal power.
At the same time the White House sought an 82 percent increase in solar power research funding, a 36 percent increase in wind power funding and a 14 percent increase in geothermal funding, it sought to cut wave and tidal research funding from $40 million to $30 million.
The decision to cut funding for tidal and wave power came only weeks after the Interior Department suggested wave power could emerge as the leading offshore energy source in the Northwest and at a time when efforts to develop tidal power in Puget Sound are attracting national and international attention.
The proposed cut, part of the president’s budget submitted to Congress, disappointed Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
“Wave and tidal power holds great promise in helping to meet America’s long-term energy needs,” Murray said, adding that Washington state is a leader in its development. “It’s time for the Department of Energy to focus on this potential. But playing budget games won’t get the work done.”
In addition to cutting funds in its budget proposal, Murray’s staff members said that while $16.8 billion in the recently passed stimulus bill is reserved for renewable energy and energy efficiency, none of it is earmarked for wave and tidal power.
The Department of Energy clearly has other priorities. But spokesman Tom Welch said the Obama administration is asking for 10 times more for tidal and wave power than the Bush administration.
“The trend line is up,” said Welch. “The department is collaborating with industry, regulators and other stakeholders to develop water resources including conventional hydro.”
Murray sees it differently. Congress appropriated $40 million for the current year, so the Obama administration proposal actually would cut funding by one-fourth.
Utility officials involved in developing tidal energy sources said the administration’s approach was shortsighted.
“We need all the tools in the tool belt,” said Steve Klein, general manager of the Snohomish County Public Utility District. “It’s dangerous to anoint certain sources and ignore others.”
The Snohomish PUD could have a pilot plant using three tidal generators installed on the seabed of Admiralty Inlet west of Whidbey Island in 2011. The tidal generators, built by an Irish company, are 50 feet tall and can spin either way depending on the direction of the tides. The units will be completely submerged with 80 feet of clearance from their tops to the surface of the water. They will be placed outside of shipping channels and ferry routes.
The pilot plant is expected to produce one megawatt of electricity, or enough to power about 700 homes. If the pilot plant proves successful, the utility would consider installing a project that powered 10,000 homes.
“A lot of people are watching us,” said Klein.
The Navy, under pressure from Congress to generate 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025, will install a pilot tidal generating project in Puget Sound near Port Townsend next year.
Before moving to the Snohomish PUD, Klein was superintendent of Tacoma Power, where he launched a study of putting tidal generators in the Tacoma Narrows. The study concluded that even though the Tacoma Narrows had potential, it wouldn’t be economically feasible for eight to 10 years.
While that may be true, Klein said, the Snohomish utility does not have the “legacy resources” like hydropower that Tacoma and Seattle City Light have, and his utility is growing faster than the other two.
But most of the state’s major utilities are scrambling for renewable energy resources.
State law requires that the larger utilities obtain 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The law sets up interim targets of 3 percent by 2012 and 9 percent by 2016.
Most of the attention so far has focused on developing large wind farms east of the Cascade Mountains. But because wind blows intermittently, the region also needs a more reliable source of alternative energy; tidal and wave fit that need. Also, at least with tidal, the generators would be closer to population centers than the wind turbines in eastern Washington.
“The potential is significant and (tidal and wave) could accomplish a large fraction of the renewable energy portfolio for the state,” said Charles Brandt, director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s marine sciences lab in Sequim.
The PNNL lab, Oregon State University and the University of Washington all are working on tidal and wave power.
Oregon State is focusing on wave power and is putting together a pilot project off of Reedsport on the southern Oregon coast. The waves off of Washington and Oregon are considered to have the most energy-producing potential of any in the United States.
The University of Washington is taking the lead in the development of tidal energy, with the Sequim lab concentrating on the environmental impacts of tidal and wave generators.
The lab has developed a three- dimensional, hydrodynamic model for Puget Sound and the adjacent Canadian waters, Brandt said. Among other things, it could be used to locate sites for tidal generators.
“It can help identify the best sites,” Brandt said.
Brandt said the environmental concerns include the effect the slowly revolving turbine blades might have on fish and marine mammals, along with the electromagnetic and noise effects. There also are concerns that the underwater turbines could create “dead zones” in Puget Sound by interfering with circulation flows and nutrient patterns.
“These are the types of things we need to study,” he said.
Brandt said the lab previously had developed a mechanical device they called a “sensor fish” they placed in the turbine of a Columbia River dam in an effort to learn how fish were affected when they flowed through the turbines. Brandt said it, along with lab studies, found the fish were rarely struck by turbine blades but were affected by shear and pressure differences.
Newly designed turbines installed at Wanapum Dam have reduced fish injuries by 98 percent.
“If you can provide design engineers with the right data, they can build technology that will be environmentally sustainable,” Brandt said.
Les Blumenthal: 202-383-0008
lblumenthal@mcclatchydc.com
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