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.

Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009: Profile - Dr. John Huckerby

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.

Dr. John Huckerby
Chairman of IEA, OES
President of AWATEA

What changes have you noticed in the industry since the time that you began working in the field until now?
Increasing interest in the media, increasing numbers of participants, increasing number of devices under development

How do you see the  marine renewable industry helping our economy?
Utilizing existing industry capacity – manufacturing, engineering, offshore services, fishing  - to service new project deployments, creating new jobs and requiring new skills and capabilities

What do you find most exciting about the marine renewables industry?
The possibility that new sustainable, renewable, reliable, clean and available energy resources may be utiltized.

What, in your opinion, are the top two to three developments needed to bring marine renewables to commercialization?
Extended deployments to demonstrate, capacity factors, reliability, O & M costs.  Confirmation that environmental effects are limited and can be managed.

What are your predictions for the marine renewables industry over the next 3-5 years?
The first commercial wave and tidal stream array deployments; increasing numbers of permits, the spread of Government initiatives to support marine energy deployments, new countries developing devices and projects;  the first serious public concerns about environmental effects.

John Huckerby is the founder and Executive Officer of the Aotearoa Wave and Tidal
Energy Association (AWATEA), a marine energy industry association formed in April 2006. He is the current Chairman of the International Energy Agency’s Ocean Energy Systems Executive (IEA:OES) and he is also NZ’s representative to the International Electrotechnical Commission’s TC114, a technical committee set up to establish technical, environmental and performance standards for marine energy.

Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009: Profile - Robert W. Thresher, PhD, PE

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.

Robert W. Thresher, PhD, PE

What changes have you noticed in the industry since the time that you began working in the field until now?
In a few short years the industry has moved from the conceptual design of ocean renewable energy devices to building and testing of prototype systems.  It has always been my experience that talking about a new technology is easy, but actually putting systems in the water is hard work and costs a lot of money.  We see that happening right now.

How do you see the marine renewable industry helping our economy?
The development of new technology and new ways of generating our electricity is exciting and it creates new
opportunities, jobs, and investment, as well as reducing the outflow of U.S. dollars to oil producing counties.

What, if anything, makes the marine renewables industry different from other industries that you’ve worked with?
I have worked on wind technology for the past 30 years, so at least in my case; I see more similarities than
differences.  Marine renewables seem to me to be very similar to wind energy in its first stage of deployment.

What do you find most exciting about the marine renewables industry?
The most exciting thing to me is that nobody knows what a really successful ocean energy machine looks like.  The fun is in the challenge of figuring it out!

What, in your opinion, are the top two to three developments needed to bring marine renewables to commercialization?
My top three developments needs for marine renewables are to:
1.    Develop mathematical simulation models of the intuitively most promising marine generating systems and see what it tells us about their potential
2.    Get some machines in the ocean and under testing, and then take data on their real performance and
responses to check our models.  Some machines will fail and some will be successful, but we will learn.
3.    Measure the environmental impacts as we begin testing to learn how to avoid and minimize any measured impacts early in the development cycle of marine energy systems.

What are your predictions for the marine renewables industry over the next 3-5 years?
I predict the success of two or three different types of marine generators, but the success will be built on learning from failures, along the pathways to success.

Dr. Robert Thresher, longtime director of the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), was appointed to the position of NREL Wind Energy Research Fellow on April 1, 2008. As the former Director of the National Wind Technology Center, Dr. Thresher was Internationally recognized as a visionary, leader and architect of the national wind energy agenda.

Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference 2009: Profile - Elizabeth R. Butler

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.

Elizabeth R. Butler
Partner
Pierce Atwood LLP

What changes have you noticed in the industry since the time that you began working in the field until now?
Ms. Butler: 1. More money has been promised for support of marine renewable energy R&D through federal and state governmental programs. But there is less private sector investment funding due to the economic downturn.  (Swift implementation of public sector funding programs is critical to advancing the industry).
2. There is an increasing understanding among many stakeholders that a collaborative approach is needed to develop marine renewable energy resources on the accelerated timeline needed to protect our environment and our national security.
3. There are an increasing number of public-private partnerships to support marine renewable sector R&D and coastal zone demonstration projects.

How do you see the  marine renewable industry helping our economy?
Ms. Butler: The marine renewable industry is critical to our national security and to protection of our environment - both of which are critical to our economy.  In addition, the marine renewable sector will drive tremendous new growth in the related manufacturing, construction, and clean energy fields.  Finally the marine renewable industry, along with land-based renewables, opens the opportunity to design a more efficient transmission system and a more rational demand-side management system that will make our economy more productive.

What, if anything, makes the marine renewables industry different from other industries that you’ve worked with?
Ms. Butler: The broad range of participants from many different nations and backgrounds, often working ininternational partnerships to solve a common problem.

What do you find most exciting about the marine renewables industry?
Ms. Butler: While the marine renewables industry will face the same multiple use conflicts that fisheries, aquaculture,  navigation, tourism , or extractive uses encounter in the shared space of the oceans, there is potential to minimize the conflicts through a collaborative approach and a shared mission to reduce our dependence on non-North American petroleum supplies.

What, in your opinion, are the top two to three developments needed to bring marine renewables to commercialization?
Ms. Butler: 1.  Adequate public sector money to support R&D development through commercialization
2. Interconnection and transmission grid planning and reconstruction to support new marine renewable project loads.
3. Development of collaborative working arrangements among federal, state, and local regulatory authorities, as well as scientifically sound and economically rational standard permitting conditions for development, where possible to avoid additional friction time and costs in development.

What are your predictions for the marine renewables industry over the next 3-5 years?
Ms. Butler: R&D Demonstration sites will be sited along the US coastlines in near and deepwater marine environments. More international partnerships will be formed in order to expedite R&D development
Integrated wind and marine hydrokinetic test sites will be developed, with longer term addition of offshore
aquaculture facilities.
Several near-shore wind farms and several commercial scale tidal power sites will be constructed within five years. There will be increasing focus on use of marine renewable sources of power to service coastal populations, rather than shipment of power from mid-western renewable power sources.

Ms.  Butler  is  a  partner  in  the  corporate and international practice groups of Pierce Atwood  LLP,  a  law  firm with  offices  in Portland and Augusta, Maine, Portsmouth, New  Hampshire,  Boston,  Massachusetts, and Washington, DC.   She has over thirty years  of experience with    legislative, regulatory  and   policy  issues controlling   marine   renewable  energy projects.