Buoy Power Neg CD

Buoy Power:Neg Christos Dimoulis, Eveready
Buoy Power: Neg
1. INHERENCY:
1.1. Stimulus Bill offers tax credits for marine power
1.2. State Power: Oregon to instal buoys
2. SOLVENCY:
2.1. Wave power iffy
2.2. Handful of Buoy power problems
2.3. Wave power should be done with thousands of small generators
2.4. Wave power is still diffuse
2.5. 1.5 MW for every 100 feet of shoreline occupied by generators
2.6. Large Scale wave power would be met by stiff resistance
2.7. One Oregon household uses 1MW each month
2.8. High Cost due to intermittence
2.9. High operating and upkeep costs
2.10. Economic recession causing pull-back in new renewable tech
2.11. Aesthetic
2.12. Storms could cause unmooring
2.13. Species protection could get in the way
2.14. Technology is very new, underdeveloped (addressing wave power in general)
1. INHERENCY:
1.1. Stimulus Bill offers tax credits for marine power

Carolyn Elefant, “Stimulus Bill Promises to Buoy Marine Renewables Industry”
February 20, 2009
On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, or as it is commonly called, the “stimulus package.” The legislation
contains a combination of tax cuts and funding programs that bring unprecedented support to the
marine renewables industry. Despite the legislation’s fast track, OREC managed to ensure parity
for marine renewables. In particular, OREC is proud of the legislation’s inclusion of a choice
between an investment tax credit (ITC) and production tax credit (PTC), as this is an option that
we’ve been pressing since early 2007. The bill extends the deadline to place marine renewables
in service through the end of 2013 to qualify for production tax credits. Marine renewables still
qualify for only half the PTC that wind receives, however, marine renewables projects have an
additional year of PTC eligibility. For all renewables, the PTC credits run for 10 years after a
project is placed in service.
1.2. State Power: Oregon to instal buoys

Ted Sickinger, The Oregonian, Oregon Business News, “Oregon Iron Works will build first buoy
for wave farm off Reedsport”, December 04, 2009,
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/12/oregonians_build_wave_energy_b.html
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Courtesy of Ocean Power Technologies As part of a U.S. Navy project, Ocean Power
Technologies installed one of its PowerBuoys 75 miles off the coast of New Jersey. The company
has also installed test buoys under contract with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to
demonstrate their ability to capture wave energy and convert it to electricty. A New Jersey firm
has hired Oregon Iron Works to build the first of 10 wave energy buoys that it will begin
installing off the Oregon coast next year in the country's first commercial-scale wave energy
farm.
2. SOLVENCY:
2.1. Wave power iffy

C. Bruce Lowery (a retired power plant engineer. He began his career at the U.S. Navy
Propulsion Engineering School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. After separating from
the Navy, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri in 1971. He obtained a Class A Stationary
Engineers License, and was hired by General Motors as a Shift Engineer at the Chevrolet Plant
in Kansas City, Missouri. He obtained a Master HVAC Mechanics Certification (Heating
Ventilation and Air Conditioning), and at the age of 49 graduated Suma Cum Laude with a
Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Park University. Energy Consumers Edge,
(Energy Consumers Edge is about solutions to high gasoline and utility costs. It is also about
winning a secure energy future.) “PROS AND CONS OF OCEAN WAVE ENERGY“ 2007,
http://www.energy-consumers-edge.com/about-the-author.html
Ocean wave energy looks like an iffy proposition. There are a few areas where wave power may
prove desirable. But environmental and aesthetics concerns combined with expensive
intermittency problems will be serious obstacles to significant wave power use for some time.
2.2. Handful of Buoy power problems

Christine Miller, A Brief History of Wave and Tidal Energy Experiments in San Francisco and
Santa Cruz, August 2004, http://www.outsidelands.org/wave-tidal3.php
According to the California Energy Commission, in the last decade, projects have been discussed
at Half Moon Bay, Fort Bragg, San Francisco and Avila Beach. Issues that have prohibited the
development of wave power in California include the limitations of the technology,
environmental impact issues, disturbance of marine life, high costs, concern over possible
collisions with ships and other problems.
2.3. Wave power should be done with thousands of small generators

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Because wave power is scattered and the size of individual waves is limited, all designs are
necessarily modular. Harnessing wave energy probably won’t be done with a few, very large
generators. Large-scale use of wave energy will likely involve thousands of small generators of
1MW and less.
2.4. Wave power is still diffuse

Wave power is more energy dense than wind power, but it is still diffuse.
2.5. 1.5 MW for every 100 feet of shoreline occupied by generators

National Renewable Energy Laboratory Ocean Wave Energy Data shows that even in high wave
energy dense areas such as the Pacific Northwest, we can expect energy production rates of
about 1.5 MW for every 100 feet of shoreline occupied by generators. By comparison, a large
fossil fuel plant of 1,000 MW capacity would occupy about two hundred acres. Installing a
similar capacity using on shore wave power would occupy over 12.5 miles of shoreline; and
that’s in the best areas like the Pacific Northwest.
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2.6. Large Scale wave power would be met by stiff resistance

It doesn’t take a genius to see that any proposal to line these shores with ocean wave energy
generators will be met with stiff resistance.
2.7. One Oregon household uses 1MW each month

Oregon Department of Energy. Energy Usage in Oregon, June 2003, www.energy.state.or.us,
An aMW is 8,760 megawatt hours. This is the continuous output of a resource with one
megawatt of capacity over a full year. A megawatt hour is 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh), which is
the amount of electricity the average Oregon household uses in a month.
2.8. High Cost due to intermittence

World Energy Council wave power cost data suggests that wave energy is very close to being
competitive with installed costs that suggest electrical charges of less than $.05 per KWh; which
makes it competitive with fossil fuel generators. But that figure doesn’t take into account the fact
that wave energy is intermittent and variable. Even in the most active wave areas, there are many
days with little wave activity. On days that have good wave activity, wave levels can vary. As
explained on the Pros and Cons of Wind Power page, resolving intermittency problems to attain
reliable energy output can double and even triple the cost of power. The key to reliability and
economy of operation is site selection based on good site research.
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2.9. High operating and upkeep costs

Patrick Blum, International: Herald Tribune, “A setback for wave power technology, Sunday,
March 15, 2009, www.principlepowerinc.com/news/articles/iht_090316.pdf
On the cost side, investments in ocean-based technologies "are very high and operating costs are
not entirely negligible because you have the problem of corrosion from salt water," said Colette
Lewiner, head of the global energy and utilities sector at the French consultancy and services
company Capgemini.
2.10. Economic recession causing pull-back in new renewable tech

For sure, the economic recession and financial crisis are adding to the challenges facing such
projects, as investors pull back. "There will be a pause, a slowdown, in renewable energy
investment until we see the recovery," said Ms. Lewiner, of Capgemini. But "these investments
take time and you can't sleep through the recession. These plants are needed."
2.11. Aesthetic
Wherever these systems are placed they will almost certainly have to be designed with regard to
visual impact. It comes down to a choice of designing something that has a natural appearance,
or having thousands of miles of barren concrete seawall on all of our coasts. Offshore
installations have a different kind of problem. If we expect to harvest significant amounts of
energy from off shore waves, we can expect to see thousands of them bobbing around within
eyesight of shore. There are some systems being tested that are underwater and out of sight. But
time will tell whether or not they can stay that way. If they are shallow enough such that they are
navigation hazards, they will have to have marker buoys – lots of marker buoys.
2.12. Storms could cause unmooring

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Beyond any visual impact we must be aware of the fact that storms will cause ocean wave
generators to occasionally dislodge from their anchors and become serious navigation hazards.
2.13. Species protection could get in the way

Todd Woody, New York Times, “Wave Power Setbacks in California”, August 12, 2009,
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/wave-power-setbacks-in-california/
However, the National Marine Fisheries Service has identified a plethora of protected species
that may be affected by the Humboldt project, ranging from endangered coho salmon to the
northern elephant seal and the long-beaked common dolphin.
2.14. Technology is very new, underdeveloped (addressing wave power in general)

"Part of the problem is the absence of data," he said. "Countries are still at an early stage and
don't want to reveal real costs." It's a very young technology, Mr. Chandler (Hugo Chandler, a
renewable energy analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris.) said, but "the indications
are that it is considerably more expensive than other technologies."
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Buoy Power:Neg Christos Dimoulis, Eveready

Buoy Power: Neg

1.1. Stimulus Bill offers tax credits for marine power

1.2. State Power: Oregon to instal buoys

2.1. Wave power iffy

2.2. Handful of Buoy power problems

2.3. Wave power should be done with thousands of small generators

2.4. Wave power is still diffuse

2.5. 1.5 MW for every 100 feet of shoreline occupied by generators

2.6. Large Scale wave power would be met by stiff resistance

2.7. One Oregon household uses 1MW each month

2.8. High Cost due to intermittence

2.9. High operating and upkeep costs

2.10. Economic recession causing pull-back in new renewable tech

2.12. Storms could cause unmooring

2.13. Species protection could get in the way

2.14. Technology is very new, underdeveloped (addressing wave power in general)

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