NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — On a cloudy morning in late August, Burke Hales was on a boat a mile off the coast of central Oregon, pointing to a sandy beach along the forested shore. There, the Oregon State University oceanography professor said, undersea cables from the first major wave energy test site in the Americas would be connected to land — and ultimately to the local power grid.

“This is the strongest – probably the most energetic – wave condition of any test site out there,” he said, as the notoriously high swell hits the Oregon coast hard and rocks the boat.

Oregon’s coastal waters are becoming key to advances in two forms of renewable energy: wave power and floating wind turbines. Traditional power generation is a major cause of climate change, so clean alternatives are key to combating this problem.

Wave energy is still in earlier stages than floating wind, but the potential could be great. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, ocean energy – a term researchers use to describe energy harvested from tides, currents or waves – is the world’s largest untapped energy source. The Biden administration announced Monday that it would invest more than $112 million to advance the development, manufacturing and testing of wave energy systems.

Although work on floating wind turbines has progressed further, it is still at an early stage and is encountering resistance.

The only way to build offshore wind on the West Coast is to use floating turbines. The ocean is too deep to attach traditional turbines to the seafloor, says Mark Severy, a research engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Lab who studies the challenges of offshore wind development in the United States.

So far, there are only a handful of floating offshore facilities worldwide, mostly small pilot projects in Europe and China that are designed to test the technology and pave the way for larger projects. The largest is Hywind Tampen, eleven turbines that supply electricity to oil and gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea. No floating wind turbine has yet been built in the United States.

California awarded the first leases in the USA to develop floating wind farms on a commercial scale in 2022. The federal government has first research lease for floating offshore wind turbines to the state of Maine in August, and the sale of the commercial leases in Oregon will take place next month. In these areas, the wind blows fast and strong, so a single turbine can generate more electricity than in areas where the wind is not as strong.

In Oregon, resistance from tribes, fishermen and coastal residents highlights some of the challenges associated with offshore renewable energy.

The resistance is directed primarily against the US government’s plans to build floating wind turbines in two 790 square kilometer areas off the southern coast of Oregon.

The two areas identified by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) are located 52 kilometers off the coast of Coos Bay and 29 kilometers from the small town of Brookings near the border with the state of California.

Some in these communities are concerned that construction will harm marine life, marine habitat, culturally important areas and ocean views. Although the wind areas are miles from land, the lights used to illuminate the turbines at night would be visible from shore, according to one Visual simulation of BOEM.

Two coastal counties will ask their voters in November whether they oppose the development of floating offshore wind turbines. And the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians – whose culture is tied to the sea – sued the federal government before the upcoming lease sale.

BOEM says it has worked with tribes. But Tribes in Oregon and California have expressed their frustration at what they see as a lack of consultation.

John Ogan, executive director of natural resources for the Coquille Indian Tribe on Oregon’s southern coast, said tribal members were pressured into meetings with the federal government “without addressing our problems, our concerns or our requests for information in a factual manner.”

“We have sacred sites,” he said. “The tribal peoples will never again experience a sunset the same way they have for over 10,000 years.”

The wave energy test site in Oregon did not face similar opposition. Hales, a professor at Oregon State University and the site’s lead scientist, attributed this to the fact that researchers worked with fishermen early in the permitting process to determine the location.

Wave energy test sites allow companies to deploy the devices they develop in a real-world environment to see how they perform. While the PacWave South site in Oregon is not the first grid-connected wave energy test site in the country—the U.S. Navy has one in Hawaii—it will be the first to be connected to the U.S. continental grid.

There are about 40 ongoing grid-connected marine energy projects worldwide. according to the PRIMRE data portal Developed by three national laboratories on behalf of the US Department of Energy. Some bob like buoys or lie on the sea floor. Others look like submerged wind turbines.

Since waves of more than six meters in height are possible at the test site in Oregon in winter, Hales estimates that the peak capacity will be 20 megawatts – enough to supply electricity to around 2,000 homes.

One reason wave energy is still in its infancy and not yet competitive with wind, solar and geothermal energy is that it is challenging for companies to develop projects that can withstand the harshest conditions of the ocean, where the waves or currents are strongest, and then convert that motion into electricity efficiently and cost-effectively.

“A big part of this operation is sea survivability,” Hales said. “We’re putting metal equipment into salt water. It generates electricity. To do that without causing significant corrosion is a high risk.”

Companies also need to consider the impact the devices will have on marine life, he said. Oregon’s coast is teeming with gray whales, sea lions, seals and seabirds.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is trying to ease tensions surrounding wind power development in her state, acknowledging that the federal government’s development process has “not gotten off to a good start.” But she said the state needs to explore renewable energy options — including floating offshore wind — to meet its climate goals.

“In Oregon, we are working toward generating clean electricity, 100% clean electricity, by 2040. That means we need to scale up what we’re doing now even further and put new options on the table. And that means floating offshore wind is one possibility,” she said.

“This is an opportunity. It is also a challenge,” she added. “But we have to try.”

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McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

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