[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 10/22/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

October 22, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People –

 

 

Wave energy contract denied

Eureka Times Standard – 10/22/08

John Driscoll/The Times-Standard

 

State utility regulators last week rejected the first wave energy application they've ever considered, denying a contract for a project off the Humboldt County coast.

In its decision last week, the California Public Utilities Commission turned down a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. application to buy power from a small pilot project to test wave buoy technology developed by Canadian company Finavera Renewables. The commission determined that the project isn't viable, that Finavera's bid doesn't compare to others in PG&E's renewable energy portfolio and that the contract price for the power isn't reasonable.

 

The decision effectively kills the agreement for the project, PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said, which was proposed to be situated off Trinidad Head.

 

Smith said that the company disagrees with the decision, and is concerned that it could deprive California of the future benefits of such a project. But Smith said that the utility would still pursue its other wave energy projects, including one proposed for off Humboldt Bay.

 

”We believe the rejection of this contract won't hinder further wave development,” Smith said.

 

Finavera got a permit earlier this year from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study an area 2 to 3 miles off Trinidad Head, potentially for a 100-megawatt operation. PG&E had signed a purchasing agreement with the company to buy electricity produced by a test project of eight power generation buoys that

would produce 2 mw. PG&E is looking to increase the renewable component of its power purchasing portfolio to 20 percent.

 

PG&E failed to show that the Finavera project is viable, the commission determined, and the technology for it is in a precommercial stage. A buoy deployed by Finavera off Oregon in 2007 sunk, it noted.

 

The commission's staff, in its recommendation, said that another PG&E project proposed off Humboldt Bay aims to test a number of different wave generation technologies, including the Finavera buoys. But PG&E hasn't shown that the Finavera buoys are any further along in development than any other, according to the commission, and there's no reason to believe the Trinidad project could perform under its contract.

 

Approving the contract at this time, the commission determined, “is not the best way to move this wave technology towards commercialization.”

 

PG&E has preliminary permits from the U.S. Minerals Management Service and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study an area for a project that would put eight to 200 wave energy buoys of different types 2 to 10 miles offshore of Humboldt Bay. That will allow PG&E to collect information for commercial projects in the future, but any actual commercial development will require separate authorization.

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_10782962

 

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