Support for wave energy swells
Drawing power from the ocean could meet as much as 10 percent of the U.S.'s power needs, but some who make their living on the water worry harnessing it will leave them high and dry. Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports.
Giant waves break on the coast of Saint-Leu. (Richard Bouhet/AFP/Getty Images)
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Bob Moon: For years now, rich and famous Massachusetts residents have been opposing plans to erect 130 wind turbines offshore. They complain it would spoil the view off Cape Cod.
This week, the state's congressional delegation urged the federal government to approve a test project that would use floating wind turbines. They'd be positioned nearly 50 miles off the coast and effectively out of sight.
At the opposite end of the country, there are hopes for turning the ocean itself into a power source, but even those plans have encountered some choppy seas.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson has our story.
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson: If there's a symbol of the ocean's raw power, it's the crashing wave. Oregon State University electrical engineering professor Annette von Jouanne is working on ways to capture the water's potential.
Annette von Jouanne: As soon as the waves start to crest, we start to lose that energy.
von Jouanne runs the nation's top wave energy research lab.
von Jouanne: Our goal is to harness the energy in the heaving ocean swells.
How it works: Giant offshore buoys capture the ocean's unrelenting force to generate electricity. The churning water has what von Jouanne calls "energy density," meaning that a little bit of ocean can produce a lot of electricity. Enough to impress Oregon Congresswoman Darlene Hooley.
Darlene Hooley: The potential is there to produce about 10 percent of the energy needs of this country.
The Democratic Representative sponsored a bill to put $250 million into wave energy.
Hooley: It means jobs, it's research and development. It means new investments into the coastal communities.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission already has a dozen permit applications for projects, including wave energy parks with arrays of buoys that connect to the grid by cables on the ocean floor. Suddenly, the open ocean starts to look a bit more restricted.
Kevin Dunn: I'm all for new and innovative ways of getting energy, but I'm almost certain that anywhere that they do this will be another closed area for us.
Kevin Dunn of Astoria, Oregon is a commercial fisherman. He's worried that fishermen won't be able to drag their nets through these new wave energy parks.
Dunn: There's places that it might be absolutely wonderful and there are places that we may really, really, really not want them and given the history, chances are they're going to be right where we don't want 'em.
The pursuit of alternative and renewable energy is a kind of modern-day gold rush: Everyone's staking claims.
Depending on how you look at it, the ocean's half-full or half-empty.
I'm Elizabeth Wynne Johnson for Marketplace.
Comments
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From Seymour, TN, 08/07/2008
As in most things that the government or educational institutions gets involved in it has to be reasearched first. I glad that we aren't inventing the wheel or discussing the shape of the earth, flat or round.
From Buenos Aires, Argentina, 07/08/2008
Has any research been made on the combination of both the wind and wave approach to energy production? In other words, wind generators mounted on the bouy generating electrical energy at the same time.
Larry Bocci OSU '47
Coronel Diaz 2880
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tel: +54 11 4802-4923
From Texarkana, TX, 07/04/2008
I realize fishermen may be displaced from these energy parks. But at the rate of overfishing, they will fish out bread baskets. Energy parks could be used to protect spawning areas that serve to sustain both fishing and energy needs.
From Fairfax, VA, 07/04/2008
I'm a Chief Scientist for Advanced Technology that has a privately own IR&D firm.
Subject: I been researching the use of offshore buoys capture the ocean's unrelenting force to generate electricity. My report depicts a savings of move than 10% by a large factor. The proposed bill by for $240 million for "Wave Energy" by Oregon Congresswoman Darlene Hooley needs to be discussed. Why? Six companies have already research, built, and tested the technology and are ready to go.......
Looking forward to hear from Oregon Congresswoman Darlene Hooley office and "not" a staffer. Thanks.
Joseph Saucier, Sc.D
(Cell phone: 703-350-1579 (anytime before 11 am - EST)
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