German-made solar cell manufacturing machinery has been delivered to a set-up warehouse in Portland. SoloPower contends its federal and local subsidies will create a far different outcome than the recent “Solar World” debacle of last year.
The story is in the Oregonian. Click here.
New Zealand device off Newport (August/September)
Oregon State University’s wave energy scientists have narrowed their hunt for a “hooked to the beach” wave energy testing station down to two communities: Newport and Reedsport. OSU said they should have their minds made up between the two based on how well the communities would accept the test station since there would be wires that come ashore and hook into the local electricity grid. In Newport that would mean hooking into Central Lincoln Peoples Utility District. It would also mean that the local community would also accept the fact that the test site could possibly be deducted from the local fishing area.
The story is in the Oregonian. Click here.
Regional news media were given an up close and personal tour Thursday of Oregon State University’s new wave energy testing station, bobbing in large sea swells 2 miles northwest of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. The Ocean Sentinel is a floating testing dock full of instruments, computers and other scientific equipment that is hooked up to a prototype wave energy device from New Zealand. It’s owned by a private company that wants impartial third party testing of their device to lend accuracy and credibility to their particular wave energy product which they would, of course, like to sell on the world market.
OSU’s National Marine Renewable Energy Center built the Ocean Sentinel and is expect to eventually have many more wave energy clients line up to have their devices tested as well.
But the Ocean Sentinel is somewhat limited in its range of tests. It doesn’t handle the full output of a large wave energy device, only some of that output. More robust testing must wait for a device to send its full electrical output by cable to a substation onshore. Four communities along the Oregon Coast are vying to build such a facility: Ft. Riley near Warrenton, Newport, Reedsport and Coos Bay. The suitability and cost effectiveness of each site is currently being weighed by OSU scientists. They expect to announce the top two candidates within a couple of weeks. Important criteria include having proper depths for wave energy devices close to shore, ease of routing an underwater power cable, closeness to an onshore substation and general support of the community for wave energy becoming a major user of offshore resources.
Once a site is selected, it’s expected to take several years to get the testing station up and running.
Wiki photo top
Lincoln County graphic left
Wind turbines have become more and more of a common sight in many parts of the country; certainly along the Columbia Gorge and in some areas of eastern Oregon. Heavy federal subsidies have prompted many investors to erect these large power generators to help provide more power to an energy hungry nation.
Lincoln County Solid Waste Program Manager Mark Saelens told Lincoln County Commissioners Wednesday that there is a possible lucrative investment opportunity for Lincoln County by getting into the wind power business. He said there are a number of grants available to reduce the investment cost while reaping a substantial return on power sales from wind generators placed in at least a couple of locations; near Thompson Sanitation in Newport and near the Waldport campus of Oregon Coast Community College.
Saelens said that local governments have an opportunity for easier entry into the wind generating business through a technological innovation in ascertaining whether there exists local winds sufficient to build wind turbines. He said it’s like “sound radar” in which sounds are injected into the air at a specific location and then electronically recorded. The difference in the sounds reveal the presence of wind, both in direction and velocity. If, over a period of time, winds are sufficient to justify investing in wind turbines, the county could erect them and sell their power to the local power grid. Sales can run into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, over time.
The idea got the attention of the commissioners who said they were interested in pursuing specifics on the financials. But they also cautioned that any forward movement on the project must be subjected to a full and open public airing of the proposal and aspects of county income, including what many would term the “visual blight” such large wind turbines would pose along our coast.
And they pretty much left it at that.
Courtesy photo
China’s biggest solar panel manufacturing company, smarting from a 31% tariff slapped on chinese solar panels imported into the U.S. due to allegations of illegal product “dumping,” has decided to explore opening a plant in Oregon to get around the tariff. Solar panel outfits already in Oregon reacted by saying, “Bring it on.”
The story is in the Oregonian. Click here.
Share on Facebook
The Oregonian photo
Those who manage the generation and routing of wind power into the Northwest Grid will have an especially difficult time this Spring when an abundance of hydropower runs up against an abundance of wind power. Bonneville Power Administration, which has found wind power difficult to manage within its own system, could find itself back in court if it is ordered to shut down some of its hydro generators in order to let all the wind energy through. BPA has resisted doing that in the past because it claims cutting back hydro kills a lot of migrating fish (some of them endangered) and unjustifiably penalizes local northwest power generators just so wind energy bound for California can get through to Golden State customers.
The story is in the Oregonian. Click here.
OSU wave energy testing
Graphics courtesy OSU
Oregon State University’s Kaety Hildenbrand says the university will be getting into the wave energy testing business late this summer off Yaquina Head. They will begin a program to help wave energy companies determine whether their devices are robust enough to generate sufficient wave energy that can eventually be connected to the power grid on shore. Hildenbrand told Lincoln County Commissioners Wednesday that they have one company already signed up for testing their device by late summer.
Hildenbrand says private wave energy companies are looking to OSU and other major U.S. universities, with deep scientific competencies, to validate and document the performance of their devices. She said the devices will be moored off Yaquina Head and will be connected by wire to a small craft that will record data from the device.
In the meantime, debate continues over where wave energy devices should be placed. Commercial fishing interests are concerned that such devices scattered over wide areas of coastline could lock-out fishing vessels from prime fishing grounds, not to mention the visual degradation of what was a natural blue ocean now pock-marked with acres upon acres of wave energy devices. Others are concerned about the visual blight on beaches as major cable landings on shore transfer power to the grid. They point to the near-destruction of certain views along the Columbia Gorge that huge wind towers have caused in the country’s rush to generate green energy at “all costs” including to the taxpayer since tax breaks are the only thing, so far, that makes wind energy financially feasible. Wind as well as wave energy also pose problems for regional power distribution systems since these two energy sources occur at unpredictable intervals. With the northwest power grid frequently maxed out, when wind and wave energy are substantially contributing to the overall flow of electricity, other power plants would have to back down so as to not overload the system. Such tactics have financial repercussions on local utility bills to spawning fish runs associated with hydro-electric dams.
Against this backdrop, the Oregon Territorial Sea Plan is in the throes of final review and possible enactment in Salem, and nobody seems to be able to predict what the overall outcome will look like, or how it will operate. During Wednesday’s meeting, Lincoln County Commissioner Terry Thompson encouraged the public to take serious note and get involved because there could be substantial effects on the economy and quality of life of Central Coast residents and of the tourists who visit the area.
Courtesy photo
Solar power cells and wind energy farms are common throughout Oregon. But with the slumping economy and government at all levels getting a little gun shy about government subsidies, the job creating green energy wave is still out to sea somewhere. But Governor Kitzhaber seems intent on bringing that wave ashore. The story is in the Oregonian. Click here.
Share on Facebook
Sen. Ron Wyden
Congressional photo
Oregon U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee’s efforts on getting to the bottom of the country’s trade problems, has just released a report that shows that China’s growing trade surplus with the world, including green energy products like wind energy turbines and solar panels, is due to China’s reckless violation of international trade laws. Sen. Wyden says it’s all about illegal government subsidies that allow China to sell very expensive green energy generation equipment on world markets at prices far below what any other country can make it for.
Here’s the Senate committee’s report. Click Here.
Share on Facebook
A new approach to geothermal power production is emerging near Bend that takes advantage of the earth’s molten core. They’re injecting water down a very deep hole on the slopes of an old volcano that has plenty of heat beneath it, then pumping that water back out to flash-steam drive power-generating turbines.
The story is in the Oregonian. Click here.
Share on Facebook