Wave energy test up and running on the Oregon coast

Sep 08 - The Oregonian

After years of optimistic pronouncements, haggling with coastal residents and fishermen, and one project that landed in Davy Jones' locker, a new wave of Oregon's renewable energy experiment is taking shape off the coast.

Only time will tell whether this science project can gather momentum, or the necessary funding it will need to reach commercial viability.

In late August, researchers at Oregon State University launched the first of what they hope will be a fleet of wave energy devices at their new test bed two miles offshore of Yaquina Head.

The Wave Energy Technology-New Zealand or Wet-NZ buoy, has been bobbing lazily in the summers swells for two weeks, sending reams of data and a trickle of electricity via underwater umbilical to the Ocean Sentinel, a floating battery pack and data hub anchored nearby.

A five-week test will allow the prototype's owner, Northwest Energy Innovations, Inc., to gather performance data on the $750,000 prototype and its mooring system. The plan is to pluck the device out of the water before it meets the full fury of fall on the Oregon coast, then go on to develop a full-scale model.

OSU scientists are hovering nearby, dropping their hydrophones and related equipment into surrounding waters to measure the device's acoustic footprint, electromagnetic frequencies and impact on sea life, whether its bottom dwellers or migrating gray whales. Meanwhile, the Ocean Sentinel monitors the strength of wind waves and the current, in tandem with the power buoy's output.

"It's naive to think there will be no impact from these devices," said Belinda Batten, director Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at OSU. "We can help answer some of those important questions."

OSU is one of three federally funded research centers addressing the technical, environmental and social challenges of wave and tidal energy. Established in 2008, its aim is to provide standardized facilities that commercial developers can use to deploy and test power buoys without a protracted siting process.

Wave buoys have been controversial on the coast, and the test site was chosen after two years of discussion with crabbers, fishermen, state agencies, wave energy developers and scientists.

For developers, the tests can provide crucial information on their devices' durability, efficiency in different wave conditions, and other maintenance issues and costs. The WetNZ is the first prototype moored at the Yaquina Head site. But the center hopes to score another $25 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a second Oregon test zone with berths for four buoys -- this one fully connected to the electrical grid on land. Batten said she expects an answerin the next couple months, though it could depend on the election and congressional jockeying over spending cuts.

Meanwhile, the center says more tests will be forthcoming. There are myriad designs to maximize the extraction of the kinetic energy in waves. Some are for near shore deployment, others for deeper waters. Some float, others sit on the sea floor. Mechanical systems vary widely. Developers are looking to capture the most energy at the least cost. The answer may depend on location.

Oregon already has some experience in the field. In 2007, a prototype buoy deployed off Agate Beach in Newport started taking on water, then sank in 150 feet of water before its owner could haul it out of the water.

Not surprising. Oregon, with its West Coast exposure, and distance from the equator, has one of the strongest and most reliable "wave resources" on the globe, researchers say.

Whether that can be harnessed and delivered at a reasonable cost remains to be seen.

The WetNZ, largely funded by taxpayers in United States and New Zealand, can only produce 20 kilowatts of electricity. A commercial scale device would require 20 to 50 times that output, according to Justin Klure, a partner with the company.

"If you can't produce electricity at a competitive price, this industry won't be around for the long term," Klure said. "It's nascent. The only way you start to know that is to put these devices into the water and see how they work."

Commercial efforts aren't far off, however.

Weather permitting, New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies plans to moor its own "utility-scale device" about 2 1/2 miles off Reedsport next month and see how mother nature treats it through an Oregon winter.

The Power Buoy 150 is a behemoth. Looking like a cross between the Seattle Space Needle and an outsized toilet float, the buoy is 145 feet tall, 40 feet wide and will weigh in at 200 tons when the company tows it away from Vigor Marine's dock in Portland for the trip to Coos Bay.

The initial buoy is being built in Clackamas at Oregon Iron Works, with additional work by Vigor Industrial in Portland and an American Bridge Manufacturing plant in Reedsport.

As its name implies, it has a generating capacity of 150 kilowatts, the equivalent to about 150 average homes if it were connected to the grid and constantly generating its maximum capacity. As it is, the first buoy -- with a redesigned mechanical system from one deployed earlier the coast of Scotland -- will dissipate the energy it produces, sending it into an onboard heat sink for its first year of operation.

OPT received a federal license in August to moor 10 of the devices off Reedsport and connect them to the grid. But the license requires one year of operation for the initial buoy before OPT can run electrical cables and proceed with the project. The company also needs additional funding to complete the project, and executives say it will likely be at least two years before the next deployment.

So what does all this mean at your light switch?

Not much, for now.

The PB150, according to past reports quoting company executives, was slated to cost some $4 million to develop and build. The company has a $4.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the Reedsport project, an Oregon business energy tax credit worth $900,000, and $420,000 from the Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative, which has the right to purchase the power.

Company executives and researchers talk of someday producing electricity for about 15 cents per kilowatt hour -- about twice the price that utility customers pay today, and several times the wholesale price of power. But scaling up a wave farm using today's buoys would carry a ludicrous price tag.

"In the early stages, until you get into volume production, it's certainly expensive," said Michael Kelly, OPT's vice president of operations. "Whatever the price is to build it today, that's not going to be the price to build it tomorrow."

-- Ted Sickinger

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