Offshore Breezes Could Power 300,000 Homes

ATLANTIC CITY-Ocean breezes, currents and waves could someday provide up to 1,000 megawatts of power to an estimated 300,000 homes in New Jersey if a Seattle developer sees his windfarm project to fruition off the coast here. And, in addition to the mitigation of global warming, the project could prove profitable for the developer and his investors.

“Our intention is to sell power at a competitive price,” Burton Hammer, president of Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Co., tells GlobeSt.com. He adds that given the preference for renewable energy, people will buy it, noting that the project would in turn, create green jobs while increasing shorefront real estate activity.

According to the New Jersey Energy Master Plan of 2008, the state hopes to see at least 1,000 megawatts of offshore wind and up to 200 megawatts of on-shore wind power by 2020. “Consumers in New Jersey are expected to benefit from more wind and wave generated electricity since our state is a net importer of electricity and wind or wave resources are clean renewable energy sources that would displace the use of dirty fossil or nuclear generated electricity,” a spokesman for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities tells GlobeSt.com.

He says there are no licensing approvals required by the Board of Public Utilities for these types of projects, since New Jersey no longer regulates electric generation. However, there are what might be seen as antiquated federal hurdles to cross that have led to disputes over who has final say on renewable energy development plans that involve massive energy producing apparatus planted in the sea beds off the coastlines of America.

As it stands, a company that wishes to build an offshore wind farm must obtain all relevant local, state and federal permits and leases. But part of the process also involves approval by both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the US Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service.

According to Hammer, this means the United States doesn’t have a functioning regulatory system for offshore renewal energy sources. He says the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC process exists and functions but the MMS process is in development and will probably not issue a call for proposals for leases until the middle of next year.

“As it stands now, he says the regulations are actually in direct conflict about who’s in charge out there” in the sea, says Hammer. “So even if you want to do it, under MMS rules, you can’t, because they won’t give you a permit since they don’t have a system set up yet.” He adds that the MMS is working as quickly as possible considering the complexities involved in setting up a working rule.

For its part, the MMS says it’s working hard to ensure that a final Alternative Energy and Alternative Use rule establishes a strong framework to support what it calls a “new and exciting program.” The final rule has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget and awaits clearance according to the MMS, although an MMS spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com, “we don’t anticipate that the rule will be published by the end of the year.”

Of the current dispute, the spokesman says, “The Energy Policy Act of 2005 granted the Secretary of Interior the authority to oversee the development of energy sources other than oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf.”He says the Secretary of the Interior delegated to the MMS the authority to regulate alternative energy projects on the OCS and is currently working with projects through its interim policy.

“While we disagree with FERC’s interpretation of the laws, we continue to go through the rulemaking process” and “we have reached out to FERC’s leadership and are hopeful of a positive resolution,” says the MMS spokesman. Still, as it stands, approval by FERC is necessary for any hydropower project to operate and that in itself can lead to a years-long process.

For example, the Grays Harbor Project filed for a preliminary permit on Oct. 22, 2008. FERC then issued a notice to the public that it had received the application on Nov. 28. FERC says it is now seeking public commentary.

“The next step is that the commission will review the proposal for a preliminary permit, which gives the applicant three years to study the feasibility for the proposal,” says the FERC spokeswoman. Of the dispute between MMS and FERC she stresses the license to operate a hydropower project must come from FERC. But MMS has certain rules that control the leasing of the land where the proposed project will be built.

Given this, Hammer suggests that Congress ultimately might have to work out how MMS and FERC interact. He adds that president-elect Barack Obama could hasten the switch to renewable energy by funding a NOAA-run detailed seabed map project that uses high-resolution site scan sonar, so that with the end product, everyone knows what’s out there and where projects like his can be built.

“I believe the new administration should mobilize NOAA and other surveying ships along the coasts of America to advance the cause of ocean renewable energy and also create green jobs now,” he says.

Dr. Peter Mark Jansson, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ , tells GlobeSt.com, “It is very likely the developer will realize a significant profit in developing these offshore wind sources” based on the European experience. “The Europeans are far ahead of us, they have demonstrated that offshore winds can be a very economic as well as environmentally attractive addition to their capacity resources.