Up to this point, I had heard vague mentions of harnessing ocean power for energy, but I really had no idea what the technology entailed. I certainly had no idea it was so far along that something like this would be happening off the coast of Reedsport!
I grew up about twenty minutes south of Reedsport. I have a very personal connection to the struggles that follow the boom and bust nature of the timber industry. Due to increased environmental awareness and regulation, as well as depletion of the resource itself, those old timber towns will never be able to return to the thriving lumber centers they were in the nineteen sixties; not on the back of the timber industry alone. But now a new possibility presents itself: Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) is putting out the first buoy 2 and 1/2 miles off shore that will send power to Oregon’s energy grid.
It is an exciting new industry possibility for the Oregon Coast. Of course, there are challenges. OPT has been in communication with the fishing industry about location for the buoys. If the project grows, it could become more of a challenge to place the buoys where they would not be an obstacle to fishing and shipping. The buoys are large. One buoy produces enough energy to power 100 homes. On the one hand, that’s amazing. But when you consider the size of the population, that’s a lot of buoys to place. It’s also a lot of buoys to manufacture and maintain, which brings me back to the positive industry potential OPT might bring.
The clean energy potential is really exciting. The buoys are totally mechanical; no hydraulic fluid to leak, no crude oil being sucked out of the ocean floor, and no river blocked to impede fish migration. Once a buoy is in place, it rises and falls with the waves and sends the energy generated by that motion back to Oregon’s power grid.
I am excited to watch what happens with this project, and to see how it benefits Reedsport and the state of Oregon.