Wind, wave power play
Company seeks permits to build 100 platforms off Nantucket and R.I.
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A developer is proposing to build the first commercial-scale projects in New England waters to harness the power of the waves for electricity, but most of the energy they produce would actually come from attached wind turbines.
Grays Harbor
One site is 12 miles to 17 miles southeast of Nantucket and another is about the same distance south of Block Island, RI.
Scientists, however, believe there's little potential for large wave energy projects off the East Coast.
"When you look at an average over a typical year, from New York to Cape Cod, the wave energy potential is pretty low," said St??phan Grilli, a professor of ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island.
The company's president, Burton Hamner, agrees. He says that 90 percent of the projected power capacity of each site would come from the wind turbines that would be erected on top of the platforms.
The platforms would have hollow, perforated columns; as waves pass by, they would push air up through the columns, spinning turbines at the top. The platforms would also serve as foundations for towering wind turbines, said Hamner. He predicts they would be visible from shore only on a few "exceptionally" clear days of the year. By comparison, Cape Wind, the controversial 130-turbine wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, lies about 5 miles from the nearest shore.
"South of Nantucket seems a much more appropriate place than Nantucket Sound," said Tracy Bakalar, executive director of the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce, although she had not heard of the Grays Harbor plans.
John Miller, director of the New England Marine Renewable Energy Center at UMass Dartmouth, said he does not rule out the potential for a wave energy project on the East Coast. "It's intriguing, but the proof is in making it work," he said.
Along the Pacific Coast, waves typically have greater force because prevailing winds follow them as they sweep toward the coastline. On the Atlantic Coast, prevailing winds counteract the waves coming toward shore, and the continental shelf is wider, slowing the waves' momentum when they are far from the coast.
The Grays Harbor proposal has spurred debate within the industry about whether the company, established in 2007, saw the federal permit process for a wave farm as easier than that for a wind farm. Hamner said that the projects would be "wind-wave hybrids," not just wind farms, but that he thought the energy commission's process was simpler than other avenues for "gaining access to a site to study it."
Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company submitted the permit applications in the wake of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announcement in October that it had jurisdiction, based on a law that dates to the early 20th century, to license and give out preliminary permits for projects in federal waters that harness water's kinetic energy to turn it into electricity. The commission has already used this authority for tidal and other hydropower projects in "navigable" rivers and streams and in states' coastal waters, which extend to 3 miles from shore.
But another agency, the Minerals Management Service, gained authority to award leases for renewable energy projects in federal waters from a 2005 law, and has been overseeing the review process for offshore wind projects, including Cape Wind. It also plans to release regulations by the end of this year for offshore renewable energy development in federal waters.
Carolyn Elefant, a lawyer based in Washington, D.C. who has advised ocean renewable energy developers for 15 years, says that in order to construct a wave farm, Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company would also need to secure a lease from the Minerals Management Service. Elefant said the regulatory process remains unclear in a way that gives companies the ability to "game" the system by potentially staking a claim to certain waters through one federal process that may be quicker and then selling those rights to another developer.
The permit applications, "should send a warning signal to the industry, to the agencies, to the Hill that this is an issue that needs to be addressed," she said.
Before Grays Harbor could build a wave-wind farm, it would need a federal environmental review and evaluation by state and local agencies. Hamner said the projects could not go on line until at least 2016, and he estimated each site would cost about $4 billion. He said he does not expect to secure all seven preliminary permits, but added, "even one of them would be a big project."
No commercial-scale wave energy projects are in operation in the US, although one in the waters near Oregon could go online within the next two years.
If Grays Harbor secures the preliminary permit for the waters southeast of Nantucket, the company will have a three-year-period to study the site, said Celeste Miller of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Then, the company would need a license to pursue construction.
Bina Venkataraman can be reached at bina@globe.com.
