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Not since the fuel crisis of 1973 has there been such an interest in alternative energy. Back then the price of gasoline was nearing $1.10 a gallon, the federal government was promoting alternative initiatives, and several projects were launched here in Maine. During those years, I was hired by the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Pleasant Point to help develop one of those alternative energy initiatives—the Half Moon Cove Tidal Power project. The project, had it been implemented, would have used the predictable power of Eastport’s tides to generate enough electricity to power the entire county.
Gas peaked at $1.66 in 1981—and then dropped dramatically the next year. The panic over fuel prices evaporated almost instantly, and most Americans were once again lulled into the idea that oil would always be plentiful and cheap. In those years, few appreciated the effect of burning fossil fuel on the environment.
Today, reality is knocking even louder. The price of gasoline past $4 per gallon this summer. While political rivals argue over terms like “carbon offsets” and “drill now,” thousands of Maine residents are in a panic over how they will pay for oil this winter, with the price per barrel recently topping $144. Now the environmental toll is no longer something even visitors can ignore: More than once this summer in Bar Harbor, the air quality was hazardously poor due in part to the burning of coal in the Midwest.
Over these past 30 years, the technology and environmental impacts of Half Moon Cove Tidal Power project have not changed significantly. The project’s design was and is simple and elegant: Use the rise and fall of the water to create potential energy, turn turbines, and generate electricity. Half Moon Cove’s ultra-predictable power source—tides that reach 28 feet variation in the spring and fall—continues to cycle twice a day in the waters of Cobscook Bay. All that is needed is to construct a relatively simple power plant centered around a small dam (also known as a barrage) to harness that daily surge of energy.
Unfortunately, in Maine, the mere mention of the word “dam” makes many cringe, and the state has taken a policy not to fund any grants that would study this project under its Rural Initiative Program because the plan requires a dam. I have continued to pursue the project and am working under a FERC permit issued in 2007; the simple common sense of it compelled me to resurrect it, though the estimated time for environmental studies alone, given the current political climate, could be several years. This and the lack of significant transmission capability in the region have discouraged major investors from taking on this project. Yet I am compelled to persevere.
I am an environmental engineer who has dedicated most of his life to protecting Maine’s land, air, water, wildlife, and people. I could never back a project that polluted the surroundings or adversely affected an economy. This makes it all the more disheartening to face the obstacles I and my colleagues have over this project—while, at the same time, we watch state officials tout wind power as the new sliced bread.
One need only do the math to see that wind does not fully meet the diversity requirement for our electrical demand. The favorable wind sites are off-shore which will eventually require a different perspective on resource utilization.
First, any child can tell you that the wind is unpredictable: Witness the February brownouts in Texas when the wind died unexpectedly, or the July power glut in Oregon, when a gale sent more power into the Northwest power grid than it could handle—requiring operators to circumvent the generators by spilling water at levels perilous to juvenile salmon.
Many proponents tout wind power’s sustainability, but few talk about the fact that the ever-shifting winds require plants to have backup power (i.e., fossil fuels) always at the ready—in amounts anywhere from 60% to 95% of the turbine’s capacity.
Meanwhile, an ultra-predictable, clean power source—Maine’s powerful tides—continues to cycle twice a day off our 3,500 miles of coastline.
One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “Will the Half Moon Cove Tidal Power project change the Eastport landscape?” The answer is yes. The dam would straddle the old toll bridge site, with a passenger road atop the dam. This means the island of Eastport would once again be connected with the mainland via an alternative route, relieving traffic through a residential section in the Passamaquoddy reservation, which now serves as the only route into Eastport. The capture of the water at Half Moon Cove each day would turn what one avid sailor recently called “a gunk hole” into a saltwater head pond with less drastic fluctuations, providing for recreation and possibly, as one fish biologist suggested, increased clam production. The residual effects of Half Moon Cove’s power production would also likely change the region: With an affordable source of power in Eastport, additional businesses would be attracted to the Eastport area, bringing a literal surge of energy to a depressed, underserved economy.
Half Moon Cove Tidal Power project incorporates well-tested technology, and one does not have to look too far to see an example in successful operation. At Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia, NS Power has been operating an 18 megawatt tidal power facility for about 30 years. Across the ocean, the Rance Tidal Power plant in France, completed in 1967, continues to reliably produce about 600 million kilowatt hours of power annually, at a cost of about 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 2.5 cents for France’s nuclear plants.
Like Annapolis Royal, the scale of Half Moon Cove represents a modest yet significant source of power. At a designed capacity of over 15 megawatts, the power from this facility (if used locally) would have a major impact on the price of electricity in Washington County. One need only look at the creation of Backyard Farms in Madison, a 24-acre greenhouse, to see how affordably priced electricity can drive economic development in rural Maine.
One can also look to the past: Throughout the industrial-development history of the state, coastal businesses found ways to harness the tides from coves either for grinding grains, sawing wood, or, in the case of Vinalhaven, polishing granite. Today on Vinalhaven, the PUC, through a grant, is helping community members dig out and re-create their historic tidal power plant. Right next door, Phil Crossman is installing a small turbine within the same operational scheme. These projects may spark the interest of other tidal property owners to revisit the many small sites once in operation up and down the coast.
Should Maine’s political powers that be move past their irrational fear of dams, and their propensity to drag their feet in the permitting process, Half Moon Cove could be producing electricity in five years. No other alternative energy proposal I know of would create so much clean energy in such a short time frame. While I am hopeful that the current energy crisis will inspire some visionaries to get behind this project, I am also collaborating with others to study alternative tidal power options using underwater devices, but these will be several more years in the making.
As I wrote this piece, the tides of Cobscook Bay rose about 20 feet, creating enough potential energy at Half Moon Cove to run all the lights and appliances in 12,000 Maine homes. If only I could convince Maine’s power brokers to find some dam common sense, and get this clean, reliable energy on the grid.
Normand Laberge, PhD, PE, is founder of Tidewalker Associates, a Trescott environmental engineering firm. For more info on the project, visit www.mainetidalpower.com.
Gas peaked at $1.66 in 1981—and then dropped dramatically the next year. The panic over fuel prices evaporated almost instantly, and most Americans were once again lulled into the idea that oil would always be plentiful and cheap. In those years, few appreciated the effect of burning fossil fuel on the environment.
Today, reality is knocking even louder. The price of gasoline past $4 per gallon this summer. While political rivals argue over terms like “carbon offsets” and “drill now,” thousands of Maine residents are in a panic over how they will pay for oil this winter, with the price per barrel recently topping $144. Now the environmental toll is no longer something even visitors can ignore: More than once this summer in Bar Harbor, the air quality was hazardously poor due in part to the burning of coal in the Midwest.
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Over these past 30 years, the technology and environmental impacts of Half Moon Cove Tidal Power project have not changed significantly. The project’s design was and is simple and elegant: Use the rise and fall of the water to create potential energy, turn turbines, and generate electricity. Half Moon Cove’s ultra-predictable power source—tides that reach 28 feet variation in the spring and fall—continues to cycle twice a day in the waters of Cobscook Bay. All that is needed is to construct a relatively simple power plant centered around a small dam (also known as a barrage) to harness that daily surge of energy.
Unfortunately, in Maine, the mere mention of the word “dam” makes many cringe, and the state has taken a policy not to fund any grants that would study this project under its Rural Initiative Program because the plan requires a dam. I have continued to pursue the project and am working under a FERC permit issued in 2007; the simple common sense of it compelled me to resurrect it, though the estimated time for environmental studies alone, given the current political climate, could be several years. This and the lack of significant transmission capability in the region have discouraged major investors from taking on this project. Yet I am compelled to persevere.
I am an environmental engineer who has dedicated most of his life to protecting Maine’s land, air, water, wildlife, and people. I could never back a project that polluted the surroundings or adversely affected an economy. This makes it all the more disheartening to face the obstacles I and my colleagues have over this project—while, at the same time, we watch state officials tout wind power as the new sliced bread.
One need only do the math to see that wind does not fully meet the diversity requirement for our electrical demand. The favorable wind sites are off-shore which will eventually require a different perspective on resource utilization.
First, any child can tell you that the wind is unpredictable: Witness the February brownouts in Texas when the wind died unexpectedly, or the July power glut in Oregon, when a gale sent more power into the Northwest power grid than it could handle—requiring operators to circumvent the generators by spilling water at levels perilous to juvenile salmon.
Many proponents tout wind power’s sustainability, but few talk about the fact that the ever-shifting winds require plants to have backup power (i.e., fossil fuels) always at the ready—in amounts anywhere from 60% to 95% of the turbine’s capacity.
Meanwhile, an ultra-predictable, clean power source—Maine’s powerful tides—continues to cycle twice a day off our 3,500 miles of coastline.
One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “Will the Half Moon Cove Tidal Power project change the Eastport landscape?” The answer is yes. The dam would straddle the old toll bridge site, with a passenger road atop the dam. This means the island of Eastport would once again be connected with the mainland via an alternative route, relieving traffic through a residential section in the Passamaquoddy reservation, which now serves as the only route into Eastport. The capture of the water at Half Moon Cove each day would turn what one avid sailor recently called “a gunk hole” into a saltwater head pond with less drastic fluctuations, providing for recreation and possibly, as one fish biologist suggested, increased clam production. The residual effects of Half Moon Cove’s power production would also likely change the region: With an affordable source of power in Eastport, additional businesses would be attracted to the Eastport area, bringing a literal surge of energy to a depressed, underserved economy.
Half Moon Cove Tidal Power project incorporates well-tested technology, and one does not have to look too far to see an example in successful operation. At Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia, NS Power has been operating an 18 megawatt tidal power facility for about 30 years. Across the ocean, the Rance Tidal Power plant in France, completed in 1967, continues to reliably produce about 600 million kilowatt hours of power annually, at a cost of about 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 2.5 cents for France’s nuclear plants.
Like Annapolis Royal, the scale of Half Moon Cove represents a modest yet significant source of power. At a designed capacity of over 15 megawatts, the power from this facility (if used locally) would have a major impact on the price of electricity in Washington County. One need only look at the creation of Backyard Farms in Madison, a 24-acre greenhouse, to see how affordably priced electricity can drive economic development in rural Maine.
One can also look to the past: Throughout the industrial-development history of the state, coastal businesses found ways to harness the tides from coves either for grinding grains, sawing wood, or, in the case of Vinalhaven, polishing granite. Today on Vinalhaven, the PUC, through a grant, is helping community members dig out and re-create their historic tidal power plant. Right next door, Phil Crossman is installing a small turbine within the same operational scheme. These projects may spark the interest of other tidal property owners to revisit the many small sites once in operation up and down the coast.
Should Maine’s political powers that be move past their irrational fear of dams, and their propensity to drag their feet in the permitting process, Half Moon Cove could be producing electricity in five years. No other alternative energy proposal I know of would create so much clean energy in such a short time frame. While I am hopeful that the current energy crisis will inspire some visionaries to get behind this project, I am also collaborating with others to study alternative tidal power options using underwater devices, but these will be several more years in the making.
As I wrote this piece, the tides of Cobscook Bay rose about 20 feet, creating enough potential energy at Half Moon Cove to run all the lights and appliances in 12,000 Maine homes. If only I could convince Maine’s power brokers to find some dam common sense, and get this clean, reliable energy on the grid.
Normand Laberge, PhD, PE, is founder of Tidewalker Associates, a Trescott environmental engineering firm. For more info on the project, visit www.mainetidalpower.com.
