Ocean Renewable

OREC Members' Accomplishments Recognized by Media

Congratulations to OREC Member, Verdant Power for being named by Inc. Magazine as one of the most intriguing companies that are helping to drive today's green revolution.  (Article here). 

And congratulations are also in order for new member, AquaEnergyGroup (a subsidiary of Finavera Renewables) for completing the Preliminary Draft Environmental Assessment (PDEA) for the proposed Makah Bay Offshore Wave Energy Pilot Project, which will be located off the coast of Washington State.  Renewable Energy Access carried the story here  (October 30, 2006).  According to the article, the PDEA concluded that the project would have "no significant environmental effects" on the oceanographic, geophysical and biological conditions of the Makah Bay.

OREC Founders to Speak At Oregon Wave Conference

On July 14, 2006, OREC President Sean O'Neill and CEO Carolyn Elefant will serve as featured panel speakers at the Ocean Renewable Energy Conference:  Harnessing the Power of the Waves sponsored by the Oregon Science and Techology Partnership.  If you plan to attend the conference, please introduce yourselves to us so that we can help you learn more about OREC and our mission.

What's New At the OREC Website?

We've added a few additional materials to the OREC website.  In the left menu bar, the OREC Resource Library contains links to some excellent papers that deal with economic benefits of developing wave and tidal resources, as well as links to all of the EPRI wave and tidal study.  You will see that we have also added documents prepared by OREC, including a summary regulatory table, a policy paper on preliminary permits and site banking and our 88 pages of comments to MMS on its ANPR for Alternate Energy on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Also updated recently was the Renewables Offshore Blog with up to date information on offshore renewable development in the US and world wide.

OREC Featured on Renewable Energy Podcast

OREC President Sean O'Neill and CEO Carolyn Elefant were featured on Renewable Energy Access' Podcast series.   Here's the clip of the program description:

Ocean energy has not received the attention it deserves, from governmental agencies and the general public, say Sean O'Neill and Carolyn Elefant of the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition. The reasons are lack of understanding, an overly complicated approach to site approval and misguided opposition from some environmental groups. Through their organization, O'Neill and Elefant are determined to overcome these obstacles and help spawn a commercial-scale ocean energy industry in the U.S.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

OREC and "Lunar Power" Hit the Mainstream

Business Week profiled developments in ocean wave and tidal energy (otherwise dubbed "lunar power" - read the article to see why) In this week's edition article (March 6, 2006).  The article can be found in the "Energy" section and quotes a number of OREC members and Carolyn Elefant, one of OREC's co-founders.

DOE/DOI FY'07 Appropriations Requests

The Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition hand delivered the attached letters and briefing paper to the key subcommittees governing appropriations for the Department of Energy and Department of Interior. The environment on Capital Hill is filled with conflicting priorities, and will remain so throughout the Spring and Summer. It's difficult to say what the final outcome will be; however, we remain optomistic.

Ocean Round Up on Renewable Energy Access

The Ocean Energy Report for 2005 that Sean O'Neill and I co-authored is posted at Renewable Energy Access as part of its survey on 2005 developments in the renewable energy industry.  Previous posts include a focus on solar, biomass and wind.  If we've missed anything or if you have any other insights to add, you can post a comment beneath the article at the Renewable Energy Access site.

Happy New Year to all our members and supporters.  We've got our work cut out for 2006.

Welcome to Our Wiki

Thanks to everyone for a great conference call and for joining us in unveiling the OREC Wiki.  Carolyn will circulate a list of instructions on how to use the Wiki sometime this week.  Right now, everyone on the OREC mailing list has received a temporary password to propose edits to the Wiki; if you are not on our mailing list, please email Sean O'Neill at soneill@symmetrix.biz and he will list you and send you the password.  We are also getting some great press from our use of this new technology; take a look at the release here available on Renewable Energy Access. 

New Jersey Study Offers Some False Negatives About Offshore Wind: A Call to Action

On November 30, 2005, New Jersey's Blue Ribbon Panel on Development of Wind Turbine Facilities in Coastal Waters issued an interim report on the impacts of potential wind energy development off the coast of New Jersey.  The Panel's Interim Report (available here in both Executive Summary and Full format) arrived at some negative conclusions, finding for example, that the impact of offshore wind on emissions is relatively minimal - and that even those minimal benefits might be outweighed by added emissions during the construction process.  (Executive Summary at 7-8).  And the Report also suggested that offshore wind development could result in a loss of 3000 jobs and roughly $97.4 million in revenues because of harm that offshore wind development would purportedly cause to New Jersey's shore based tourism industry.  Of course, the Report made no mention of potential employment and economic gains that an offshore wind energy industry might bring, which is what environmental advocate Green Peace concluded in its October 2004 Report, Offshore Wind, Onshore Jobs which examined potential impacts of offshore wind development on Great Britain's economy.

An Update on OREC's Activities (October 2005)

[This is an edited version of an earlier post]  Like the companies we represent, OREC has learned to operate efficiently with a limited budget.  Since we organized in May, we have secured favorable provisions for ocean energy in the Energy Policy Act  through lobbying and coordination with other groups, sponsored a teleconference to brief members and potential members on the Energy Policy Act provisions, given presentations on ocean energy at industry conferences,  created this website which has been coordinated with a weblog to update members and the public on ocean energy and give the industry international visibility and most recently, offered comments in support of legislation that may help our industry.  Yet as much progress as we've made, there's more work ahead, including most immediately, the Mineral Management Service's upcoming rulemaking to implement a leasing program for alternative energy uses on the Outer Continental Shelf as well as a stakeholders meeting on removing barriers to development of tidal, current and wave technologies.   State tuned as we continue to represent the ocean energy industry in some of the challenges that lie ahead.