Cook Inlet tidal energy project paused because of funding issue

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

Ocean Renewable Power Company has notified the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the East Foreland Tidal Energy Project, a project to test the use of the strong Cook Inlet tidal currents for generating electricity for Southcentral Alaska, is currently being paused because of a break in federal funding assistance for the project. ORPC has a preliminary FERC permit for conducting the project.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office is providing some of the project funding. But because of unforeseen changes in the statuses of federal grants and the management of various federal programs over the last six months, the anticipated federal funds were not available to support the project's 2025 field season, ORPC said. However, ORPC was one of two companies that qualified to participate in a grant "down select" interview process. Interviewing was conducted in mid-September and ORPC is waiting to hear whether federal funds will be available to support the next phases of the project, ORPC said.

In conducting the project ORPC plans to install underwater power generation turbines offshore the East Foreland area of the Kenai Peninsula. The turbines would connect to a nearby substation on Homer Electric Association's power grid. The substation, as currently configured, can only accept a maximum of 2 megawatts of power from the tidal system. Although that limits the scale of the project to two tidal turbines, that is a sufficient scale to test the use of the technology in the Cook Inlet.

Phase one of the project has been completed and involved environmental permitting and the evaluation of the turbine technology to use.

Phase two of the project had been scheduled to start this year and run through to 2027. This phase involves field surveys, together with final engineering and permitting. Phases three to five, expected to run from 2027 to 2030, will involve procurement, installation and operation of the system.

ORPC has previously installed one of its TidGen turbine systems in the Kvichak River, at the village of Igiugig, near Lake Iliamna. That system has been successfully generating power for Igiugig since 2020 and has reduced the village's need for expensive diesel fuel for power generation.

- ALAN BAILEY