COURTESY OF THE MARINE RENEWABLE ENERGY COLLABORATIVE: The proposed turbine test site under the railroad bridge in the Cape Cod Canal.
BOURNE – A New England Non-profit working to advance ocean renewable energy projects is moving closer towards developing a first of its kind test site for tidal turbines in the Cape Cod Canal.
The Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative received approval last month for a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which gives authorization for further study of the area and gives priority for development.
Two commercial companies previously were given preliminary permits for the canal but were never able to develop anything due to the restrictions of navigation.
“We are doing the permit primarily to ensure that we are unimpeded in developing this test site,” said John Miller, the collaborative’ s executive director. “This test site would be the only one like it in the world and to ensure while we are developing it and putting it in place a commercial company doesn’t come in and try to get a license for that area.”
The collaborative is still working to obtain state and federal permitting for the project.
“The actually location that we are putting this test site is by the railroad bridge, but it is out of the navigation channel,” Miller said. “So it wouldn’t impede the operation of the canal but would provide this very important test capability.”
A schematic of the tidal turbine.
Tidal turbines, which are placed underwater, require areas of high flow and are only affective in places where water velocity is over 4 knots.
“Most of the leading technologies today essentially look like wind turbines but are beefed up to survive the ocean environment and do essentially the same thing a wind turbine does,” Miller said.
Miller said tidal energy is extremely predictable.
“We can map tides out for 100 years,” he said. “So where other forms of renewables such as wind or solar are very much unpredictable, intermittent, tidal energy is incredible predictable.”
The collaborative chose a site that could test turbines that are 10 feet in diameter.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
