The Portland City Council has created a task force to examine the effect of peak oil on that community, and recommend changes to meet the challenge. The decision came as a result of recommendations from the organization Portland Peak Oil. For more information, see http://www.energybulletin.net or http://www.portlandpeakoil.org

Grays Harbor County Washington, will be the site of a large new biodiesel production facility. 100 million gallons per year is the targeted output. Last year only 85 million gallons were produced in the entire U.S. In addition to the new plant in Grays Harbor County, another 85 million gallons per year will be produced in North Dakota.

There was a splendid article in the Eugene Register-Guard on Saturday, April 29th, detailing plans of Oregon State University in Corvallis to using wave energy to develop a source of electrical energy. See http://www.registerguard.com

The chosen site for the experiment is Gardiner, Oregon. This site was chosen because with only a limited budget, OSU had to make its money count. Gardiner has, first, an existing but no longer used electrical sub-station. Secondly, an unused pipeline feeds out to the targeted area, where ocean depth is about six thousand feet.

The fundamental design is really rather simple in conception. A shaft constructed of very special magnets is moored to the sea bottom by a cable. A buoy containing a wire coil moves freely up and down the shaft, creating an electrical current. A cable carries the current down to a junction box, which collects the results of several buoys and routes the current through the pipeline to shore.

Each buoy will produce up to 250 KW. More buoys can be added to create the amount of power required. There are concerns expressed by the crab fishermen in the area, but they are concerns, not opposition, and the OSU Engineering Department is working with the fishermen to minimize interference with that industry. Coastal shipping might also be affected, and minimizing difficulties in that area are also being worked out. If the experiment proves out, enough juice to power the city of Portland could be generated by the sea. Or as much more more as you might like. Depends largely on how many buoys you want anchored out there.

Great Britain is working on harnessing tides for electricity generation; OSU would appear to be the world’s leader in developing wave power. The article in the Register Guard suggests that Oregon is singularly blessed by powerful waves – best place in the world for wave power is the claim.

OSU also issued a report advocating continued and expanded wind power development in Umatilla County. They state that these developments would stabilize the economic base of the county and provide employment in the area. Wind power in Umatilla County could be used to provide as much as 480,000 kilowatt hours per year, electricity sufficient for about 46,000 Oregon homes. The report notes that there are a number of Oregon counties with a similar potential. The report also extols the benefits of local ownerships of wind power facilities, on the grounds that more of the economic benefits would be available to the local communities. My own reason for preferring local ownership – preferably communal – is to avoid an Enron type of situation such as experienced by California or Montana a few years ago.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 7:42 am and is filed under Energy Future, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.