Commercial scale deployment of ocean power may be a few years away but a report has highlighted that there are fresh signs that it is surging.
A report by The Christian Science Monitor has mentioned that WaveConnect, the wave energy pilot project at Humboldt that’s being developed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), could by next year deploy five commercial scale wave systems, each putting one megawatt of ocean-generated power onto the electric grid.
PG&E, in the past, has stated that waters off the coast of Humboldt and Mendocino Counties have excellent wave power potential.
In another positive development, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Department of Interior recently moved to clarify permitting requirements that have long slowed ocean energy development.
Earlier this month, a survey of available data on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Resources and identification of data gaps in the US underlined that although several wave power technologies are continuing to develop, there are four basic applications that could potentially be deployed on the OCS. These are: point absorbers, attenuators, overtopping devices, and terminators. The development of wave energy is most likely to be focused in areas along the Pacific Northwest or off the coast of Hawaii.
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