OPALCO Pursuing a Bold Tidal Power Generation Project
A CNL2 VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.
In an exclusive report published recently in the Salish Current, reporter Toby Cooper makes a deep dive into a project Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO) is exploring in which a football field-sized machine would be tethered to the sea floor at a point between Blakely and Orcas Islands. The large tidal generator is owned by the British company Orbital Energy, Ltd.
Two large rotors on the machine (which is shaped somewhat like an airplane) would spin fast in the powerful currents. Cooper found there are only a dozen or so viable large-scale tidal power generation projects underway worldwide. The OPALCO project would appear to be a candidate for a $6 million federal grant if the San Juans project were chosen over another tidal project in the waters off Alaska.
Cooper described his investigative process and disclosed the questions he was unable to answer so far.
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This CNL2 video is approximately 30-1/2 minutes in duration.
Opalco has been looking into alternatives for sustainable power for our islands for decades and keeping members updated along the way. In the past 10 years OPALCO has taken a much-needed deeper dive into tidal power. As someone who litigated against a similar proposal by Snohomish County PUD in our waters in the mid 2000s (because they lacked feasibility on impacts to marine mammals, fisheries, tribes, shipping, economic) I have changed my opinion about this energy source. In 2022, I traveled to Edinburgh to meet with Orbital CEO and engineers to discuss their environmental impacts, feasibility with the federal agencies, regarding the O2 unit (featured in this opinion piece). The O2 provides power to residents in the Orkney Islands, as well as jobs from building the unit to maintenance on the deployed power source. This Energy source is an incredible opportunity for the San Juan Islands to explore. I fully endorse Opalco spending resources on feasibility for this independent sustainable energy source that buffers us from mainland energy providers. The additional benefits of manufacturing such a device in our region is an added benefit. OPALCO has been proceeding cautiously as it should. Thank you for covering this important topic!
Krista from OPALCO here. To be clear we didn’t launch this project. We received a grant from DOE to continue doing feasibility studies on a potential pilot project using the technology outlined in the link below. There is lots to go through in order for this project to even begin to become a reality. This project will not happen if it can not be permitted – which has rigorous environmental and technical requirements. Stay tuned as we continue making inroads on this project and updating the community. At this point, we haven’t even finalized this latest grant so we need to get that done and we can start putting out more of the details. We hope that the community starts to think about the future of power in the islands as power reliability in our region becomes more precarious and costs rise. It can’t be business as usual. What tradeoffs are we willing to give to keep our quality of life and the 24/7 power we have become accustomed to in modern life? Tidal power has big potential to be a reliable source of power in our area – the team at OPALCO feels like we need to at least be looking into whether this technology makes sense here. Stay tuned as we get more details. We will be sharing all along the way with this project.
Check out the Quick Fact we published in 2022 which is summary to the Island Way Workshops and various community presentations we have done about the project:
https://www.opalco.com/quick-fact-opalco-tidal-energy-pilot-project/2022/11/
I appreciate CNL2 bringing this info to our attention, and personally expressing thanks to Opalco to look for alternatives to bring the price of electricity for the average person to afford here.