Video: Ocean Renewable Power successfully tested a submerged turbine during one of the roughest winters in decades in Maine
A nearly $1 million federal grant to UMaine and Ocean Renewable Power will be used to determine if submerged turbines can reliably create power from tidal currents in estuaries.
Maine has huge potential for tidal power and unlike Alaska, that has similar potential, it is already connected to the national grid. If this scales to a commercial level and the environmental impacts are minimal then one day, maybe soon, Maine will be producing prodigious amount of tidal energy.
PS I went to college in Maine during a brutal winter. We thought it was warm when it got above zero. When a Mainer says it was a rough winter, trust me, it was.
Here’s a great story on what’s going on in New York and San Francisco with tidal/wave power, thought I’d share:
http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/27/#3/1