NEAH BAY — A pioneering wave-energy project off the coast of the Makah reservation has been dropped after its British Columbia-based developer decided to halt all wave-energy projects and focus instead on wind power.
The 1 megawatt project — enough electricity to power about 150 homes — was planned for Makah Bay in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
It was the country’s first wave-energy project to receive a federal operating license.
Its developer, Finavera Renewables, also pulled permits for a larger wave-energy project it had planned off the Northern California coast.
Such projects use buoys equipped with turbines that harness the power of the rolling waves to generate electricity.
Finavera declined to give specifics about why it decided to give up its wave-energy projects, but officials said the company’s most pressing concern is finishing a handful of wind projects in Canada and Ireland.
The world’s first wave-energy project in operation is off the coast of Portugal, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. It was completed last October.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued the operating license to Finavera in December 2007.
The project was scheduled to be operational in 2010 or 2011.
Myke Clark, Finavera senior vice president of business development, said Makah Bay was intended as a pilot project and would have lasted about five years.
The project had the support of the Makah tribe and Clallam County Public Utility District.
Mike Lawrence, Makah chairman, said the announcement was disappointing.
“We put a lot of time and effort in trying to move this project forward,” he said.
Lawrence said the project would have benefited the tribe because it would have provided the reservation with a nearby source of power, and it could sell excess energy that it didn’t use.
The tribe is at greater risk for power outages than most communities due to its location at the far northwest end of Clallam County.
“We would have a source of energy coming right off the water,” Lawrence said.
A statement released by the company cited economic issues.
“The decision allows the company to focus its resources on enhancing its near-term wind project portfolio and prove shareholders with a clearer path to revenue in this challenging economic environment,” Finavera CEO Jason Bak said in the statement.
Bak also said in the statement that the company’s primary focus is on completing wind projects in Canada and Ireland.
In October 2007, before Finavera received its operating license, one of its 75-foot-tall wave-power buoys sank unexpectedly during a test run off the Oregon coast.
The plans to place four buoys in Makah Bay also needed 10 to 15 additional permits, including approvals from the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The buoys, which could each produce 250 kilowatts of power, would have been connected to a nearly 4-mile-long underwater transmission line.
The line would have carried the electricity to shore, where it would have been fed into the Clallam PUD electrical grid.
Clark said he couldn’t release how much the company estimated the project to cost.
The project was also supported by the Northwest Energy Innovation Center, comprising Bonneville Power Administration, Energy Northwest, Battelle Memorial Institute and Washington State University.
The project was initially proposed by AquaEnergy Ltd.
Finavera took over the project when it bought AquaEnergy Ltd. in 2006.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
