Today’s New York Times includes a great feature article on tidal energy in the United States, with detailed coverage of the leaders in U.S. markets, including Verdant Power and Ocean Renewable Power Corporation. The article quotes Dr. Bob Thresher of NREL, who devoted much of his career to wind, and has now gone over to marine renewables:
In many ways, tidal power is at a stage similar to wind power’s two or three decades ago. “That’s exactly the way wind started out, with fairly small projects,” said Robert Thresher, a research fellow with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, who, after years of wind-power research, now studies what is called marine hydrokinetics, a catch-all term for tidal, wave and ocean thermal energy. “They learned how to operate and maintain their machines. It was somewhat trial and error.”
Now large, efficient wind turbines are arrayed in vast farms. With tidal power, Mr. Thresher said, “I think you’ll see exactly the same kind of evolution” of the technology.
The wind comparison is reassuring because wind cost around 25 cents/kwh in 1980 and is now down to around 4-6 cents/kwh (that’s not counting PTCs or other subsidies). Tim Ramsey of DOE is even more optimistic; he believes that tidal power may only take a decade to catch up to wind, rather than 20 or 30 years.
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