December 11, 2006—The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) recently reported on several tidal power plants proposed for the US, and one for New Zealand.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s Tidal Energy Permits page lists 38 pending applications for projects in Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, and Washington. FERC has also issued preliminary permits for tidal projects in the Tacoma Narrows of Washington’s Puget Sound, in San Francisco Bay, and in New York’s East River, as well as eight proposed Gulf Stream projects located off the coast of Florida. In addition, wave energy projects have been proposed for Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island and Makah Bay in Washington.
In addition, Crest Energy plans to install 200 undersea turbines on the bed of the Kaipara Harbour in northern New Zealand, which is among the largest in the world. The turbines will be spaced out along a 5-mile-long line near the north end of the mouth of the harbor, capturing only about 2 percent of the total tidal energy flowing through the harbor. Crest Energy expects the project to cost about $400 million and to be complete by 2011.
