logo

PG&E kills wave power projects for California while Scotland moves forward

image
Author: Bob Morris
Created: 26 May, 2011
Updated: 13 October, 2022
2 min read

Pacific Gas & Electric is abandoning pilot projects for wave power off the California coast. It cited lack of funding and high costs of the projects as the primary reasons.

The projects were tiny in size, 2 MW and 5 MW, quite unlike current plans by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom (formerly S.F. Mayor) to build a 10-30 MW wave project near San Francisco which could be expanded to 100 MW.  Clearly there are economies of scale in energy projects. The 5 MW PG&E project would have cost at least $50 million while San Francisco's has been estimated at $120-140 million, less than three times the cost for potentially vastly more power.

The ocean is an unforgiving place. Salt corrodes equipment. Wind and waves knock things around. However, development of wave power continues.  There are a fascinating number of wave energy generation systems being tested now:  oyster-like contraptions that sit on the ocean floor, buoys and snake-like devices that create power from passing waves, and a new one like looks like a squid.

Scotland thinks wave power can be commercially viable and is marshalling huge resources to find ways to create power from waves, as well as wind and hydro. Scotland has been called the "Saudi Arabia of renewable energy" and is already generating more energy than it uses. Once they harness more of it, specifically wave and tidal, their energy output will be prodigious. One wonders why California can't do this too.

The European Union may put substantial funds into a wave power project in Scotland. If funded and built, it will be the biggest grid-connected wave energy system in the world. Multiple other wave power projects are being planned or have already begun in Scotland. Wave power, unlike wind or solar, is quite dependable and steady. It's doesn't fluctuate much, especially not in the windy and stormy ocean off the north of Scotland. It seems to me that Scotland is racing ahead, developing important new technologies while California took a few timid baby steps then gave up. Some company, maybe several of them, will figure out how to do wave power at grid scale. But it doesn't look like such companies will be from California or even from the US.

Europe has a vision, a big one. They want to produce as much of their own power as possible from renewable sources, and they want to do it relatively soon. This isn't just because they want to hug trees and stop climate change. They are also doing it because they don't want to rely on dicey oil and gas pipelines, which pass through sometimes unstable and unfriendly areas.  The Desertec Foundation, which is backed by huge Eurozone commercial interests, wants to install vast solar power in the Sahara, and then send what those countries don't use to Europe via direct current. That's what I mean by thinking big. There are no such projects in the U.S. or California on this scale. And there need to be. We are falling behind.

Latest articles

Harry Kresky
Harry Kresky: An Independent Hero
The independent reform movement has lost a champion, but his work is sure to live on. Harry Kresky, ...
18 March, 2024
-
2 min read
Krist Novoselic
Smells Like Independent Spirit: Nirvana's Krist Novoselic and the Fight for Better Elections
Former presidential candidate and co-founder of the Forward Party Andrew Yang sat down with Nirvana co-founder Krist Novoselic, who went from changing the status quo in music to bringing that independent spirit to the political arena and the fight for better elections....
18 March, 2024
-
1 min read
vote
It's Time to Let All Voters Vote in South Dakota's Taxpayer-Funded Primaries
Unfortunately, the upcoming 2024 South Dakota primary election promises more of the same for our state....
15 March, 2024
-
5 min read
TikTok
TikTok Has No Place in the Two-Party Duopoly
The US House of Representatives voted 352-65 Wednesday in favor of a bill (HR 7521) that would ban TikTok, a social media app used by approximately 170 million Americans, if Chinese tech company ByteDance refuses to divest from it....
13 March, 2024
-
7 min read
make every vote count
Report: 6-in-10 New Voters Register Unaffiliated in States that Suppress Independent Voters
Mounting research continues to show the real truth behind independent voter suppression in several states across the US....
12 March, 2024
-
3 min read
voter at polls
17% More Votes Count Under Ranked Choice Voting, Study Finds
A new study analyzing all single-winner ranked choice voting (RCV) elections since 2004 reveals a significant increase in meaningful votes and representation in elections under RCV....
12 March, 2024
-
2 min read