Electricity from the Bay of Fundy Tides

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Lake Girl

Lake Girl

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Nov 12, 2011
6,939
NW Ontario
Cool, hope this try works better.
 
The Bay of Fundy may be one of the more promising tidal power sites in the world, but I'm highly skeptical that's enough to make it worthwhile, even if OpenHydro learns how to build a turbine that doesn't fall apart despite being installed in an area with well-characterized tidal currents.

Our PUD management tried this in Puget Sound, also working with OpenHydro. I think they belong in jail for it. Somebody in the PUD had to be expecting to get very rich off the deal. They persistently dodged questions about predicted electricity costs, but the overall project cost was public knowledge, and the annual generation estimates were in their FERC application.

I started educating myself on the project with an open mind, simply because I'm perpetually interested in energy developments. I only started getting concerned when they cancelled, claiming one of their main sources of funding failed to uphold a supposed "gentleman's agreement." As they say, verbal agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on, and I couldn't believe an agency like our PUD was doing business that way. Digging deeper, especially when looking at their FERC application, it got ugly fast.

Their projected annual maintenance costs alone for the turbines, when compared to annual generation worked out to $4.10 per kWh. No, I did not misplace a decimal. We're not talking cents per kWh. We're talking dollars per kWh. That's roughly 20 times as much as the effective cost of solar in our area. The amortized cost of construction would have worked out to another roughly $10.70/kWh.

Western Washington is far from one of the best places for solar power, but even that technology would have been 50 times more cost effective than our local tidal boondoggle was going to be. I hope OpenHydro isn't ripping off the Canadian people the same way they tried to rip us off.
 
I remember Snohomish PUD getting permits for tidal power at several locations with strong tidal currents but thought it was the PUD itself that was testing and developing the tech. Interesting to hear the OpenHydro story.
 
OpenHydro was to be the contractor at least for the turbine installation, but the PUD was taking care of the planning, siting, and regulatory aspects themselves. I'm not sure who would have taken installed the seabed transmission line and handled maintenance.

I really don't know what was going on behind the scenes, but the numbers very clearly didn't pencil out, and I'm really disturbed that the project value never seems to have been discussed. On a separate note, the same PUD manager is in the news again for awarding no-bid contracts to a firm run by a personal friend of his.
 
There is a test bed site at Cape Sharp on a branch of the Bay of Fundy.
OpenHydro is just one of the companies installing demonstration scale projects.
The big challenges are the large boulders and massive sediment loads that get pushed back and forth every tide.
Some of the installations are anchored on the bottom, some are moored in the water column.
The potential resource is staggering; more water flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy every 12 hours, than all the river flow of the world combined. But the mud is also staggering.
In the age of sail, the bay provided many natural drydocks, where a vessel would be afloat just once or twice a month in the upper reaches of an estuary.
Back to work in my lab, overlooking the Bay of Fundy :)
 
dougstove, is OpenHydro doing the financing or a local power company or ?? I had seen something about this two or three years ago but never saw the follow-up. Can't remember if it was US or Canadian involvement. Would be interesting to see what kind of generation stats they have and anticipated maintenance costs... if they can work out the other challenges.

Are they doing more underwater work with ROVs or still using divers? Hubby was a sat. diver in the 80s crewing out of St. John's, NFLD ... heading toward North Dana, Grand Banks. 750' down !!! sister ship to the Ocean Ranger:(
 
Coincidence - I was just at that place (the FORCE centre) yesterday, outside of Parrsboro. There is huge energy passing through there 4 times a day - once each way with each tide. You can stand right there & see the huge currents flowing. They are hoping to be generating power before the year is over. Might be optimistic since the year is almost over, but I think that things about ready to go. Cables are laid & waiting, new power lines went up last year.
 
Hi - I have only a newspaper understanding of the centre.
Emera, the local power network is involved in setting up base stations, so trial generators can more or less plug in for trial monitoring runs.
http://fundyforce.ca/about/
I think there are at least 3-4 different installations planned, each by a different consortia of developers/financiers, over the next year.
As for ROV vs. divers, I do not know. I am hoping to take a road trip to the site to have a look. Ocean Ranger :(, I was in North Sydney when it went down. Sad day.
 
It is research and development people.
It isn't cheap and it has to happen somewhere first.
The potential in the Bay of Fundy is awesome.
 
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