MRECo Thanksgiving News

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Promoting the sustainable development of renewable energy in New England ocean waters.

MRECo

Thanksgiving

News

Caption: Eben Franks, Alejandro Moreno, Steve Barrett and David Hume visited the Bourne Tidal Test Site in early November.

DoE visit: MRECo was fortunate to be able to host two key members of the Department of Energy’s Water Power Technology Office. Director, Alejandro Moreno and David Hume visited Bourne to view the Bourne Tidal Test Site (BTTS) and to learn firsthand about what MRECo has been up to. They were interested in the BTTS as a unique tidal turbine test site and how it will be used to test smaller scale turbines for distributed power in remote, in situ, island applications. In addition, they were “making the rounds” to many others in the region to learn about what sort of research resources are available.

Current Meter Deployment : An FSI Current meter, equipped with a conductivity temperature depth recorder (CTD) will be installed on the turbine lifting arm in the next few weeks. The data from the system will be transmitted to shore via cell signal as a demonstration of how we can capture real time data. This method of measuring water velocity at the exact location of the lifting arm is important because it will help characterize the water flow environment where future turbines will be tested.

Blue Economy Event: MRECo’s Operations Manager, Eben Franks will do a Flash Talk about the use of the BTTS for sensor and turbine testing at Blue Economy event taking place Nov. 27-28, 2018 in Newport, RI. Check out the agenda and sponsorship opportunities at: https://salve.edu/blue-innovation-symposium

This event will gather over 200 folks who will discuss “The Ocean, Data and You”. Pre-Registration is encouraged and fees are very reasonable!

Funding Pending Legislative Approval: MRECo was pleased that the Massachusetts Legislature had appropriated $205,000 to wire the BTTS to shore to enable turbines and sensors to receive shore power and produce power to the grid. MRECo is now working with Senator DeMacedo’s Office to ens ure the Office of House and Economic Development releases the funds.

Permitting Update: On November 5, MRECo filed a Draft Pilot License Application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to interconnect the BTTS to the electrical grid. The application is available for public comment until December 20. On 11/13/2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Washington D.C., published the following issuance: Docket(s): P-14775-001 Description: Notice of Intent to File License Application, Filing of Draft Application, Request for Waivers of Integrated Licensing Process Regulations, etc. re Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative of New England under P-14775. You can view the issuance at: http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20181113-3050

In other permitting news, the US Army Corps of Engineers extended MRECo’s real estate license and regulatory permit for the BTTS for another year and MRECo is preparing a Chapter 91 license application for the MassDEP which will convert the existing short-term Chapter 91 permit into a 30 year license to operate. ext

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and colleagues. Thanks so very much for your support and interest in MRECos mission to bring clean ocean energy to New England.

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