Powerbuoy photo from Ocean Power Technologies

Staff for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will be in Reedsport next month for a couple of meetings on wave energy.

FERC is looking at an application by Ocean Power Technologies to build a 1.5 megawatt wave farm off the coast near Reedsport. This could be the first commercial wave energy project on the West Coast.

These are scoping meetings, which means the information FERC gathers will be used to determine what issues have to be studied in the environmental review process.

The meetings will be held, Wednesday, April 7. The first is designed for government officials, agencies and non-profit groups. The evening meeting is designed for the general public. But anyone can attend both events.

The daytime meeting:

• When: 1:00pm
• Where: Meet at the Reedsport City Hall at 451 Winchester Avenue. The group will be traveling to sites where OPT plans to install some of the onshore facilities for the wave park. Be prepared to provide your own transportation.
• For more information: Contact George Wolff of OPT at gwolff@oceanpowertech.com.

The evening meeting:

• When: 7:00pm
• Where: Reedsport High School 2260 Longwood Dr.
• For more information: Contact Jim Hastreiter with FERC at james.hastreiter@ferc.gov

Related Stories:

The Deal That May Seal Wave Power For Reedsport.
A Big Step Forward For Oregon Wave Energy.
Oregonians Unsure About Wave Energy.

Powerbuoy photo from Ocean Power Technologies

The news that Reedsport may be home for the first commercial wave energy project on the West Coast is an important development in Oregon’s quest to be a center for renewable energy. But also important, is what’s been going on behind the scenes to make this project happen as smoothly as possible.

For the past few years a large group of stakeholders has met to work out the environmental, recreation and safety issues that will be part of building and operating the Reedsport wave park. A draft agreement was worked out in January and a final version is expected in the mext month or two.

The work draws attention to Oregonians mixed feelings about wave energy. No one really wants to say “no” to what could be an important source of clean, renewable energy for the state. While at the same time, we’re concerned about how wave parks will impact the coastal environment.

The developer of the proposed Reedsport wave park is Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) of New Jersey. Back in the summer of 2006, OPT approached Governor’s Kulongoski’s office about ways to collaborate with the state, federal agencies, local governments and others who are concerned about the possible effects of wave energy.

Late that year, the Governor turned it over to Oregon Solutions, an organization that was created by the state to deal with just these kinds of projects. While Oregon Solutions is no longer involved, the process it started lives on.

BACKGROUND: Oregonians generally support the idea of wave energy, but worry that the state is moving too quickly. This is one of the results of a poll conducted last year by Oregon State University. The big recommendation from OSU? Work closely with local groups before building wave parks. See: Oregonians Unsure About Wave Energy

The goal of the stakeholders group is to identify possible environmental impacts of the proposed wave park and figure out how to study them. Once the license is approved, then it becomes a matter of using the information to guide, or change, the construction of the project and how it’s operated.

Here’s a partial list of what’s under consideration:

A gray whale spy hopping. Photo by Dr. Steven Swartz, NOAA Fisheries

Whales: The proposed project lies in the migration path of gray and humpback whales. These species feed by swimming with their mouths open, so there’s a chance they could collide with or become entangled in the mooring lines of the wave buoys. If the whales swim around the project, then the stakeholders group wants to know if that has any impact. There’s also the question of noise. Will the sounds generated by the buoys somehow interfere with how whales navigate?

Electromagnetic Fields: The wave park will produce some electromagnetic energy. What’s unknown is whether this will affect marine life. The stakeholders group questions if EMFs will disorient salmon. Some evidence shows salmon use the earth’s magnetic forces to guide them. Sharks are sensitive to EMF and there’s a concern they could be attracted to the buoys.

Sea Lions: It’s expected that sea lions and other pinnipeds will use the buoys as haul-outs, places where they can rest. This will make the buoys less efficient because of the extra weight. Having resting spots in the open ocean may also make it easier to sea lions to prey on salmon.

Sea Birds: The buoys rise 29 feet out of the water. So it’s possible that sea birds, which aren’t used to dealing with obstacles in the ocean, may accidentally collide with the buoys. At night, the lights on top of the buoys may attract birds – also leading to collisions.

Fishing and Crabbing: The stakeholders group is studying ways to keep crabbing and fishing gear from becoming entangled in the mooring lines.

Adaptive Management: A fancy way of saying that once the Reedsport wave park is approved, the stakeholders will continue working together on these issues and any others that might arise in the future. Based on new information, OPT may have to change how it constructs and operates the project in order to minimize impacts.

Paving The Way For Approval

When the final agreement is announced, it will be added to the license application that was filed Monday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The hope is that FERC will include this agreement as one of the conditions for the license.  Then it’s up to FERC to study the project and produce an Environmental Impact Statement.

But a lot of that work has already be done because of the stakeholder process. Plus, many of the members are the very agencies that FERC works with to write an EIS. They include NOAA Fisheries and U.S. Fish and Wildlife which are responsible for protecting the endangered species that could be hurt by the wave park. Other agencies include Oregon Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Lands and DEQ. OPT will need permits from Oregon before the project can go ahead.

By getting them together and working things out ahead of time, the hope is that it will speed things along for FERC.

Aanother of the groups taking part in the stakeholder process is Oregon Surfrider. Pete Stauffer says, “Wave energy has been an interesting issue for us.” Like so many others, Stauffer says Surfrider generally supports wave energy but wants to make sure it’s done in the right way. He’s pleased with the process so far. “The approach they (Oregon and OPT) have taken to this project is really good.”

His comments echo those of Phil Pellegrino with OPT. Pellegrino is very optimistic about a final agreement being announced soon. “The fact of the matter is,” he says, “that we’ve agreed to work – in an Oregon way – with the stakeholders to study these things. We intend to live up to our side of the bargain.”

By The Way

Yesterday’s application is for a full license to build and operate a 1.5 megawatt commercial wave energy project. Plans include 10 wave energy buoys, in a quarter square mile of ocean, almost three miles off the coast. The first buoy could be deployed late this year and work on installing the rest of them could be underway by fall of 2011.

Ocean Power Technologies has applied for a full license to build and operate a 1.5 megawatt commercial wave energy project near Reedsport. Plans include 10 wave energy buoys, in a quarter square mile of ocean, almost three miles off the coast. The first buoy could be deployed late this year and work on installing the rest of them could be underway by fall of 2011.

OPT appears to be on track for building not just the first wave energy park in Oregon, but also along the West Coast.

Plans For Growth

Looking further into the future, OPT is still eyeing plans for a major expansion. In the application the company says it anticipates submitting a new application to grow the wave energy park from 10 buoys to 100 buoys. If fully built, it would be capable of producing 50 megawatts of power. This larger project would cover an area approximately 5 miles long and about 330 yards wide.

This morning, he kicked things off with an announcement that Oregon Iron Works has scored a contract to build a wave energy buoy for Ocean Power Technologies of New Jersey. OPT hopes to build a wave energy farm off the coast near Reedsport. Another nine buoys could be added to the contract.

See coverage from OregonLive and OPB.

Later he went to Seattle for a Clean Energy Forum with EPA Administrator Linda Jackson and Washington Governor Chris Gregoire. The main message from the event? The U.S. needs to move away from carbon based energy quickly, but doing so will help create green jobs.

See coverage from Climate Solutions.

An OSU wave energy prototype being tested in 2007. Photo from OSU.

I love stories that challenge conventional wisdom. This is one of them.

Take a guess at what kind of Oregonians are most likely to support wave energy. If you think it’s people who hold strong pro-environment views and love nature, you’d be wrong.

New research from Oregon State University paints a very different picture. The most reliable supporters of wave energy are older, conservative, white males. Generally speaking, they don’t concern themselves too much with the environment and are opposed to government regulations to protect it.

The results were very surprising to Maria Stefanovich, an OSU graduate student in Environmental Science. Stefanovich was part of a team that studied the attitudes of Oregonians towards wave energy.

See our earlier story: Oregonians Unsure About Wave Energy

She says conservatives are lining up behind wave energy because they believe it will help drive economic growth and create jobs for the state. They see wave energy as a way to harness nature to serve the needs of people, but don’t care that it reduces carbon and helps in the fight against global warming.

There’s a lesson here for policy makers, according to Stefanovich. She says if they really want to convince people about the need to switch to renewable energy, they need to stress the economic benefits as well as the environmental ones.

In a recent editorial for Sea Technology Magazine she writes:

“These findings have important policy implications, because they suggest that our current methods of conveying the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy are off base. This survey indicates that policymakers may be more effective in getting the public to adopt renewable energy more quickly if they leverage the public’s economic bias and stress the socioeconomic benefits that wave energy could provide, rather than issues like climate change and the depletion of traditional energy sources.”

An OSU wave energy prototype being tested in 2007. Photo from OSU.

The drive to develop wave energy off the Oregon coast may be moving too quickly for many people in the state.

A new survey by Oregon State University shows that while a lot of Oregonians like the idea of wave energy, they’re also concerned about impacts on the coastal environment and commercial fishing.

One of the authors of the study is OSU sociology professor Flaxen Conway. Conway has been working for years with coastal residents, helping them try to understand the effects of wave energy and other demands being placed on the coast.

“Some state officials are pushing this pretty hard, maybe too hard for some people’s taste.” she says. “Many coastal residents and others want to be heard, like all of us they are often skeptical of change, and in some pretty crowded community meetings it’s clear they want answers to their questions before going to commercial scale. They recognize the value of space and place in the ocean. And there are a lot of concerned people in the fishing industry who don’t want this to be just one more thing working against them.”

How quickly are things moving along? As Conway notes, wave energy wasn’t an issue only a decade ago. But with Oregon trying to meet state goals to get 25% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025, the pressure is building.

One of the recommendations from the study is for government, industry and academic leaders to work closely with coastal residents and listen to their concerns before choosing wave energy sites. The study predicts some of the biggest battles will take place over where wave projects are located. Listening and collaboration should help avoid some of those fights.

Conway says leaders need to pay attention to the “human dimension” of wave energy.

“It’s not just a case of developing technologies that work and finding industrial partners who want to develop them,” says Conway. “People care about the environment, they care about existing uses of the ocean, they care about their concerns being addressed, they care about the ocean view from their porch. All of these things matter.”

Other findings include:

• Strong support exists for both technological and environmental research to be completed before large scale commercial projects are allowed.
• The biggest supporters of wave energy are conservative, better-educated males, but the general level of knowledge about energy issues in the state is fairly high across the board.
• Truly sustainable energy sources have to consider all economic, environmental and social dimensions.
• Significant work is needed in mapping the ocean floor. This will help avoid conflicts over wave energy farms and other uses, such as commercial fishing grounds.

The increasing acidity of the oceans will get some federal attention, thanks to a bill sponsored by Washington Representative Brian Baird. The Longview Daily News reports the bill was approved by Congress and awaits President Obama’s signature. The bill requires federal agencies to study the cause of ocean acidification and propose solutions. Researchers say the oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The acid is eating away at the shells of small marine creatures that make up an important rung in the food chain.

Is it time to rewrite the U.S.-Canadian treaty that governs the operations of dams on the Columbia River? A story in the Spokane Spokesman Review raises the question and provides a good history lesson on the 1964 deal. Back then, the major concerns were flood control and cheap hydropower. These days, they’ve grown to include climate change and protecting salmon. A three-day symposium on the Columbia River Treaty starts Thursday at a resort in Coeur d’Alene, ID.

The Oregonian reports that the state Senate has approved a bill to limit phosphorous in dishwashing soaps.  It says Senate Bill 631 was approved 26-2.

They’re feeling optimistic after a successful month-long test of a wave energy device they deployed near Newport. Associate Professor Ted Brekken says, in a news release, that the test went “exceedingly well”. Brekken says the buoy produced lots of power, worked about as well as they expected, and gave them lots of data for further study. OSU has been testing several designs that use a direct-drive system.

OSU isn’t the only group to conduct such test. Finavera Renewable of Vancouver, BC tested a wave energy buoy for almost two months off the coast near Agate Beach. About a week before they were going to retrieve the buoy, it sank to the bottom of the ocean and wasn’t salvaged until July. Still, Finavera says it collected useful data while the buoy was in operation.

OSU News Release: Successful Ocean Test Advances Wave Energy Research
OSU Video Link: Wave Energy Generator Deployment