Local wave energy project starts. Not everyone happy

By Natural Resource Report;

After five years of waiting, the town of Reedsport will be soon be building their first wave energy bouy with ten more in the works.   The project will cost up to $4 million and help employ 30 workers by 2010.  A single bouy can generate enough power (150 kilowatts) to power 75 homes.  A Clackamas based company has won the contract.

There may be opposition

According to the New York Times; However, getting working wave-power projects into the water is not easy. A wave-power device from another company, Finavera, sank off the Oregon coast two years ago. In California, state regulators last rejected a wave power project (also Finavera’s), saying that the technology was “precommercial” and that the “contract price is not reasonable.” The wave project that is furthest along, off the coast of Portugal, ran into financial difficulties earlier this year.”

“In Oregon, Ocean Power could face resistance from fishermen, especially as the project grows. Nick Furman, executive director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, said his group is “not particularly excited about Ocean Power Technologies’s plans. But we’re keeping an open mind.” He added that while his members have accepted the presence of the initial buoys, they are very concerned about plans for the larger array, which “is too big a project in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  Mr. Draper of Ocean Power said his company has worked hard to make sure the buoys will withstand powerful storms and has been negotiating with stakeholders to try to make sure no one’s livelihood was harmed.”


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