Attn: DOE Announces $27 Million in Waterpower Solicitations - Act Now!

The DOE just released two (2) announcements, one for business/industry ($12 M) and the other for the labs ($15 M).   They have different announcement #s:
Business/Industry:  FOA Number: DE-FOA-0000069
Lab Call Number: DE-FOA-0000070
If you are looking to team up with other OREC members on these proposals, please contact Sean O’Neill at sean@oceanrenewable.com.

Marine industry banking on climate regs

“Reprinted from [EENEws.net] with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net. 202/628-6500. Want to see more news like this? Go to www.eenews.net!”

By Katie Howell, E&E reporter

(04/17/2009)- The fledgling marine energy industry needs incentives offered in possible federal climate regulations and about $200 million in private capital to lift its prospects, experts said at a Washington conference yesterday.
Generating energy from ocean waves, tides and temperature changes has long been a goal of the nation’s renewable energy sector, but interest has increased and waned with shifts in energy prices and growing attention to wind, solar and other renewable energy sources (Greenwire, April 14).
Energy experts at the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference stressed the importance of developing ocean power.
“We view this as an insurance policy against future price volatility, oil peaks and supply shortages,” said Mirko Previsic of re vision consulting LLC. “We’ve got to be able to diversify.”
Previsic said $200 million would help the industry install about 40 megawatts of wave and tidal capacity, enough to demonstrate the viability of the technology and spur commercial development.
But it will not be easy to get that money. Bill Staby, co-founder and president of Resolute Marine Energy Inc., a technology development firm, said his company is competing with about 80 others for limited funding since credit markets dried up last fall.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. “We need to create a level playing field.”
Staby’s suggestion: Establish a carbon tax or carbon cap-and-trade system to curb the use of cheap fossil fuels, giving renewable energy that “level playing field.”
“It guarantees a certain amount of energy will come from renewables going forward,” Staby said. “And that’s truly what spurs private capital formation in this particular industry.”
Legislative aides said lawmakers on Capitol Hill were aware of the situation and working to both pass a cap-and-trade bill and to implement other policies that would specifically benefit the marine renewable energy industry.
Beth Osborne, legislative director for Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), said the lawmaker was considering including an ocean hydrokinetic research and development component in House energy legislation that would provide federal funding for installation, evaluation, environmental impact studies and accelerated depreciation of turbines and other marine energy equipment.
“We’re working in Congress to make sure we have the market incentives in place to make marine energy competitive with other renewable energy in the marketplace,” Osborne said.
Chuck Kleeschulte, a Republican staffer for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), stressed the importance of increased federal funding during the credit crunch to help the industry get off the ground.
He said the Energy Department currently has about $37 million to $40 million slated for ocean energy research projects in the 2009 budget and that a number of senators and House members had written to the agency requesting that it bump that number up to $250 million from the stimulus.
But Kleeschulte warned about the dangers of developing an industry and new technology on the basis on government support.
“The basic rule is that the federal government is a fickle partner. Teenage loves last longer than” federal support, he said. “Over the long term, if you allow your businesses to develop a model where they become dependent on federal government support,” it could be cut. “You will be jilted in the end.”
Previsic noted a possible safeguard: Any federal policy should reward electricity generation rather than technology development.
“We know the key risks are technology-related, but we need to start putting a policy in place that rewards companies for electricity delivered, not some intermediate product,” Previsic said.

Ocean projects face daunting financial, regulatory hurdles

“Reprinted from [EENEws.net] with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net. 202/628-6500. Want to see more news like this? Go to www.eenews.net!”

By Katie Howell, E & E Reporter

(04/15/2009) The ocean could provide 2 percent of U.S. electricity needs within 15 years if there is a sea change in regulation, financing and deployment, several renewable-energy experts said at a Washington conference today.

Robert Hawsey, associate director at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said harnessing marine tides, currents, and temperature and salinity changes to produce clean energy faces many regulatory hurdles
stemming from the fledgling industry’s potential effects on the ocean and its inhabitants.
Hawsey and others at the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference say such challenges should be met head-on — with pilot projects to test technology, provide data and set the stage for future regulations.
“We have to build some prototypes and get them in the water,” said Robert Thresher, a senior research fellow at NREL, a conference sponsor. “Everybody counts on learning curves, but in the early stages, in my
mind, it’s innovation, innovation, innovation. It has a lot more to do with engineering insights than learning curves.”

Oceans now produce less than 300 megawatts of electricity, said John Huckerby, chairman of the International Energy Agency’s ocean energy committee. That number will nearly double next year when a 250-megawatt seawall dam in Korea comes online, he said, but the industry has a long way to go.

In the short run, the industry needs financing. The economic crisis has shriveled private funding sources for untested renewable energy technologies. And banks that are still investing are doing so with companies they already know, said Keith Martin, a lawyer with the New York-based firm Chadbourne & Parke. Many small developers can only secure about $300 million to $350 million, he said.

The federal stimulus bill has temporary programs to address those issues, Martin said, including grants for up to 30 percent of the project cost and loan guarantees for private lenders.
“The stimulus has changed the landscape for how to finance renewable energy projects,” Martin said.

But like other stimulus projects, ocean-harnessing developments must show they are ready to build. Projects eligible for federal grants must be ready to start construction this year or next and be completed by
2013.
Many doubt the technology is ready for large-scale development, but without in-water testing it will never advance to a scale necessary for deployment.

Carolyn Elefant, a lawyer for the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, the industry’s trade group, said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Minerals Management Service should place more emphasis on technology as they develop a regulatory framework for the offshore industry. The two agencies last week entered into a memorandum of understanding to divide the permitting and regulating responsibilities (E&ENews PM , April 9).

But most conference participants say they are optimistic that a quick deployment of test projects will help the industry take root.
“With oceans, what we’re really talking about is viability,” said Roger Bedard, the ocean energy leader for the Electric Power Research Institute. “With wind and solar, the real issue is forecastability. But the fact here is that waves are the winds of three days ago in the Sea of Japan and the Gulf of Alaska. We know two to three days in advance the power of those waves and can predict way in advance the strength of tides in any particular location at any time of day and any day of the year.”

Introduction of the 2009 Marine Renewable Energy Promotion Act

The press release for OREC on the introduction of the 2009 Marine Renewable Energy Promotion Act in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jay Inslee can be found here OREC Inslee Marine Act 04/28/09 .

President Obama, Secretary Salazar Announce Framework for Renewable Energy Development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf

The MMS Rule is out.  Here’s a synopsis and News Release. The 579 page document is available online at: http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-09462_PI.pdf.

We’ll post a synopsis as soon as we’ve had time to absorb this.  Sean and Carolyn will also be participating in tomorrow’s MMS conference call on the rule and we’ll update you if we learn any more.

The Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference and Twitter

The Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference is just around the corner, kicking off this Wednesday, April 15.  It’s not too late to sign up, so please do!  Visit the conference website to see the star-studded cast that we’ve lined up for panels and the conference, as well as the post-conference advocacy training.

Also, we’ll have Internet access at the Carnegie Institute, site of the conference, so we’ll be live tweeting the panels.  Use the hashtag #GMREC.  If you don’t know what that means, than track down our counsel (and social media guru), Carolyn Elefant at the conference and she can get you set up.

Memorandum of Understanding signed April 9,2009

On April 9, 2009, Commissioner Wellinghoff of FERC and Secretary Salazar of DOI signed a Memorandum of Understanding to clarify “jurisdictional understandings” regarding renewable energy projects in waters on the OCS. Salient features of the MOU along with my comments are listed below.

1.  Acknowledgment of Jurisdiction:  The MOU acknowledges that MMS has exclusive jurisdiction to issue leases on the OCS for all renewables, including hydrokinetic, and that FERC has exclusive jurisdiction to issue licenses and exemptions for hydrokinetic projects on the OCS.

2.  FERC will not issue preliminary permits for projects on the OCS.

Presumably, this feature is intended to avoid the type of claim jumping issue caused by the Grays’ Harbor project.  At the same time, we recognize that some OREC members will be disappointed by the loss of the ability to file a preliminary permit so as to conduct studies and maintain site priority.  It may be that the only mechanism to preserve priority for a site is to obtain lease rights.

3.  MMS will conduct NEPA analysis for issuance of leases while FERC will conduct NEPA analysis for licenses.  Each agency may choose to become a cooperating agency in the other’s process.

This requirement is a bit troubling because it suggests that there will be two NEPA processes - one for the lease and one for the license, rather than a uniform NEPA process.  OREC is already working separately on measures to develop a single joint, uniform license process and we will continue to so.  We would appreciate additional member input on this matter.

4.  FERC will not issue a license until an applicant has first obtained a lease.

This provision is a logical consequence of having both FERC and MMS on the OCS.  However, a lease is not a prerequisite to filing a license application, only to its issuance.  In the interim, if a company files for a license and does not have a lease, it seems that a competitor apply for a lease for lands that are within the scope of the license application.  Of course, there are ways to prevent this - for example, to bar MMS from issuing a lease for a site covered by a pending license application.  But as currently drafted, the MOU does not contain this protection.

5.  Other issues:

FERC and MMS will cooperate to determine how to handle hybrid (wind/wave) operations and projects that straddle the OCS and state lands.

6.  Annual Charges/royalties

There is not discussion as to how FERC and MMS will handle annual charges and royalties.  MMS intends to assess royalties for leases while FERC assesses annual charges under Section 10 of the FPA for hydrokinetic projects.  Will developers wind up paying both?

This summary is necessarily cursory as we prepare for the Global Marine Renewable Energy Project next week.  We can continue discussion of the MOU at that time.

You can find the entire Memorandum Of Understanding here or it can be found on our Resources page under FERC and MMS Regulatory Orders.

Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference Profile- Gregory Hagood

We’re in the final countdown towards the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009. In anticipation, we’re running a series of mini-profiles of our OREC members who will be moderating our conference panels to give you a sense of the quality and substance that we intend to deliver.

Gregory F. Hagood, CFA
Managing Director
Navigant Capital Advisors

What changes have you noticed in the industry since the time that you began working in the field until now?
A.     Over the past three years I have seen marine renewable energy progress from theory/design phase to working pilot projects that are delivering energy into the grid.  This is best exemplified by Verdant Power’s Roosevelt Island project that is actively generating power in the East River.  In addition, the Pelamis projects in UK and Portugal would are illustrating the ability to generate sustainable energy on a meaningful  scale from marine renewable technologies

B.    The regulatory environment in the U.S. is still difficult but improving.  Among the highlights

-    DOE has begun to work more closely with both FERC and MMS
-     FERC has issued over 30 preliminary permits to study sites
-    Studies showing no damage to fish and marine life from Verdant pilot site paving the way for acceptance of new test sites by states
-    Feed-in tariff structure Hawaii has put in place as part of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) which encourages renewable developers to develop generation resources by requiring the utility to buy the output of these resources at an attractive rate.  This should improve the outlook for all types of renewable energy in Hawaii and one should expect, due to the geography, marine renewable technologies such as ocean thermal.  Hawaiian Electric has at least 2 ocean thermal projects proposed.

C.    Funding from U.S. government, while lagging European government commitments and commitments to other renewable technologies, is improving

-    Marine Renewable Energy Research and Development Act of 2007 appropriated $50M for 2008-2012 for research into Marine Renewable Energy and establishing to research centers (Hawaii and Oregon)
-    Marine renewable now eligible for Production Tax Credit (PTC).  This tax credit has been critical to spurring growth of Wind and Solar projects

D.    Growing commercial interest in Marine Renewable Technologies
-    GE bought stake in Ocean Power delivery

How do you see the marine renewable industry helping our economy?
-    Marine Renewable Technology offers the opportunity to pioneer a new technology that can be exported all over world.  This should create R&D and engineering jobs in short term and manufacturing opportunities over the long term
-    Also offers opportunity to revitalize coastal communities in many parts of U.S.

What, if anything, makes the marine renewables industry different from other industries that you’ve worked with?
Much broader range of technologies and applications taking advantage of more diverse energy sources (waves, tides, hydrothermal) than other types of renewable energy applications

What do you find most exciting about the marine renewables industry?
It is a decade behind other types of renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass) but has opportunity to catch up quickly.

What, in your opinion, are the top two to three developments needed to bring marine renewables to commercialization?
1)     More streamlined regulatory process to make site approval process quicker abd
a.    greater cooperation/one licensing process between FERC and MMS)
b.    Federal guidelines for EPA and State Fish Wildlife approvals

2)    Reduce manufacturing cost of existing technologies to make large scale development more affordable

3)    Federal/state mandates requiring utilities to purchase 15%+ of energy from renewable sources

What are your predictions for the marine renewables industry over the next 3-5 years?
Steady growth as i) utilities and corporations look for ways to meet regulatory guidelines to generate/buy clean energy and ii) cost of equipment and regulatory approval declines with experience curve

Gregory F. Hagood, CFA serves as a Managing Director with Navigant Capital Advisors (”NCA”), the Corporate Finance practice group of Navigant Consulting, Inc. Mr. Hagood is Practice Group Leader for the Investment Banking Group at NCA which focuses on providing private placements of debt and equity as well as merger and acquisition advisory services.
Mr. Hagood specializes in working with Navigant Consulting, Inc.’s (”NCI”) Energy Services Consulting Practice where he focuses on raising growth capital for clients in the renewable energy sector.

Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009: Profile - Eoin Sweeney

We’re in the final countdown towards the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009.  In anticipation, we’re running a series of mini-profiles of our OREC members who will be moderating our conference panels to give you a sense of the quality and substance that we intend to deliver.

Eoin Sweeney

What changes have you noticed in the industry since the time that you began working in the field until now?
Having been, for decades, a proponent of the evident proposition that renewable energy in general, and Ocean Energy in particular, has very significant potential benefits, the principle changes I have noticed are:
•    OE technology is no longer the domain of the ‘loopy’ professor
•    Research and development is now underpinned and driven by real concerns about peak oil and climate change
•    The scale and intensity of research and development has increased markedly in recent years
•    The sector is now increasingly populated with the type of professional and technical skills that will be needed to make OE operational.

How do you see the  marine renewable industry helping our economy?
Marine renewables exemplify the opportunities that  clean tech offers. It involves the large-scale design, manufacture and deployment of engineered structures with very significant industrial output and employment benefits.

What, if anything, makes the marine renewables industry different from other industries that you’ve worked with?
What distinguishes marine renewables, for me, is the twin potential for addressing the global challenges of hydrocarbons depletion and climate change and of establishing a new technology-driven industry on a comparable scale to the offshore oil and gas industry.

What do you find most exciting about the marine renewables industry?
This is frontier technology, combining marine technology, power engineering and ICT.

What, in your opinion, are the top two to three developments needed to bring marine renewables to commercialization?
1.    Establishment, with government support, of significant scale test and demonstration infrastructure.
2.    Development of effective zoning and permitting processes for OE developments.

What are your predictions for the marine renewables industry over the next 3-5 years?
A small number of governments and companies will sustain investment and effort in developing and proving the suite of technologies and capabilities that are entailed in OE and the shape of the first 100MW+ projects will be clearly emerging.

Eoin has a Masters degree in Economics from University College Dublin. His work has focused on Natural Resource development. He managed the Marine S&T programme in the National Board for Science and Technology and initiated InnovaWood, a knowledge transfer network for the Forest and Wood Industries throughout Europe. He managed the Discovery Programme, a major component of SeaChange, the Strategic Programme for the marine sector 2017-2013, within the Marine Institute. He is currently Head of the newly established Ocean Energy Development Unit, in Sustainable Energy Ireland.

Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009: Profile - Dallas J. Meggitt

We’re in the final countdown towards the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009. In anticipation, we’re running a series of mini-profiles of our OREC members who will be moderating our conference panels to give you a sense of the quality and substance that we intend to deliver.

Dallas J. Meggitt
Technical Director
Sound & Sea Technology, Inc.

What changes have you noticed in the industry since the time that you began working in the field until now? I have seen a perceptible change in public awareness of renewable energy.  Accompanying this change has been an increase in demand to bring more renewable energy into the public energy portfolio.  The public needs to feel secure regarding where there energy will come from in the future.  The industry has responded to this need with new technologies, and pressing forward with the development of existing technologies.   I have seen a maturing of several of the technologies, particularly UK and European.  There is more emphasis on performance data and demonstrations in realistic field conditions.

How do you see the marine renewable industry helping our economy? The marine renewable industry is about innovation. Innovation inevitably creates new investment and employment opportunities, and these are direct benefits to the economy.  In addition, new innovative technologies have yet to be realized benefits that can lead to other economic enhancements.  Technologies that reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions improve national economic security.

What, if anything, makes the marine renewables industry different from other industries that you’ve worked with? The variety of new ideas and technological approaches in the marine renewable industry is incredible.  There are no previously developed technologies (or industrial advancements) that provide a roadmap to the successful development of a single device, no design concepts to copy or fall back on.  Several approaches have shown promise and it is likely that multiple designs will be required to harvest the full range of energy available.  This industry is open to and accepting of new ideas and concepts.

What do you find most exciting about the marine renewables industry? I think the innovation mentioned above, the variety of technical approaches and the sense of being involved at the beginning of an exciting endeavor make participating in this new, emerging industry truly energizing.  I view this as a chance to help change the process of how we (the human race) meet our energy needs.  It feels as if we are on the cusp of a revolution in how we approach energy, and how our children will move forward to gather energy using sustainable methods.

What, in your opinion, are the top two to three developments needed to bring marine renewables to commercialization? I first would suggest that a disciplined engineering approach to design of marine renewable systems is needed.  There have been too many failures that can be attributed to a lack of application of the appropriate engineering expertise and experience. These failures cost the industry credibility in the perceptions of investors and decision-makers. Second, I think there is a need for documented field demonstration of the performance of the various approaches to extracting marine energy, with sound science to back up the field work.  The industry has to show that this stuff works and can be made economically competitive.  Third, I think, like any industry, the marine renewable industry requires standard methodologies for resource assessment and standards for assessment of performance in the varied conditions characteristic of the ocean.   This is the only way that technologies can be compared to each other and decisions made about requirements for additional developments and appropriate applications.
In addition, a national strategy is needed to advance the industry with subsidized and characterized test areas for tidal and wave energy where innovators can test and demonstrate the performance of devices without the huge overhead of individual environmental permitting, which takes years and costs millions of dollars.  Permitting the test site once for the variety of devices to be tested would relieve the excessive costs if every developer is required to permit their own projects.  The resources in these areas would be characterized, the sites instrumented and equipped with standardized data acquisition systems to assess the device performance and the interaction with the environment. This would expedite commercialization of the various technologies.

What are your predictions for the marine renewables industry over the next 3-5 years? I think that some existing technologies will move from demonstration phase to pre-commercial levels.  Industry standards to measure resource assessment and device performance will begin to emerge and the industry will push forward in accepting these standardized methods.   I see the public pressure to increase investment in renewable energy as sustained or even increasing over the next 3-5 years.  And I see need to reduce the U.S. dependency on imported fossil fuels playing a key role in developing the marine renewable industry.

Dallas J. Meggitt is the Technical Director of Sound & Sea Technology, Inc. (SST), headquartered in Lynnwood, WA with offices in Wenatchee WA and in Ventura and San Diego CA. SST is an engineering services firm specializing in ocean engineering, renewable ocean energy, undersea cable systems, anti- and counter-terrorism, and port and harbor security.