OREGON SITES TIDAL ENERGY TRY

Ideal spot found for first wave of tidal power
Chris Fyall, April 14, 2009 (Snowhomish County HeraldNet)

"A tidal turbine built by an Irish company could land in a tidal energy sweet spot off Whidbey Island as soon as 2011, officials with the Snohomish County Public Utility District [PUD] announced…

"After looking for the ideal location in a wide swath of open water between Whidbey Island and the Olympic Peninsula, researchers have narrowed their focus to a small area roughly one square kilometer near the Keystone Ferry Terminal in Admiralty Inlet."

The OpenHydro tidal energy device. (click to enlarge)

"The area has fast currents, a flat sea-bottom and very few fish…

"[Jim Thomson, oceanographer with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab] helped lead a research vessel…[with] a robotic underwater camera, perhaps the only one operating in Puget Sound. The group collected data near Admiralty Inlet about water speed, water depth and marine populations.

"Researchers will spend the rest of the year revisiting the site and crunching numbers as part of a $100,000 effort funded by the Department of Energy…The U.S. Navy is planning a nearby tidal installation of its own, off Marrowstone Island, that could be installed in 2010…"

Another view of the OpenHydro device. (click to enlarge)

"When its site is selected, the PUD plans to drop a specially-built turbine built by OpenHydro, an Irish company that has installed some tidal turbines off the coast of Scotland…[OpenHydro will then] use a special barge to drop up to three turbines, which haven’t been built yet, onto the bottom of Admiralty Inlet. Installation won’t require any pilings, or pinning or drilling…At maximum capacity they could power roughly 700 homes…

"If the trial is successful, a turbine farm, with many tidal turbines, could be used to generate renewable energy for the Pacific Northwest…"