No role for sun, wind or waves in American Power ActQuestPoint

Environmentalist and scientists now suggest the size of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion is four times what was originally estimated. Now it may finally be hitting the public just how big of a disaster we now have on our hands. It is interesting to note that there are 819 other oil rigs in the Gulf. Meanwhile another oil rig just sank off the coast of Venezuela.

So enter Senators John Kerry, and Joe Lieberman who recently introduced the American Power Act. And what an act it is. This bill will actually expands offshore drilling and they’re calling oil, coal and nucleur clean energy?. Is this green washing? You got to love it…are they paying attention to current events?Remember the heads of the tobacco industry ” cigarette smoking doesn’t cause cancer” What happened to the much stronger proposals put forth by Obama which called for 25% renewable energy by 2025? And the Waxman/Markey bill which called for 15% renewable energy by 2020?

What’s happened in the Gulf isn’t a wake up call…the fire department is chopping down your door, the house is on fire…get out of the house. Now that the risks of drilling in the ocean have been confirmed and we know the pollution that oil causes, shouldn’t this bill be modified to redirect resources to real clean renewable alternatives such as Solar, wind, wave, geo, hydro and biomass?

Take for example in Ireland. Marine Current Turbines Ltd has secured approval for a lease from The Crown Estate to deploy its award-winning SeaGen tidal current technology off Brough Ness, on the southern most tip of the Orkney Islands (South Ronaldsay) and north east of John O’Groats. The company plans to have its first phase of SeaGen tidal turbines deployed during 2017 with the whole scheme operational by 2020.   Marine Current Turbines (MCT) is planning to install 66 SeaGen tidal turbines in three phases over a four year period in a site area of 4.3 square kilometres. The Brough Ness tidal array will have a total generating capacity of 99MW – enough power for nearly 100,000 homes.   SeaGen is the world-leading prototype tidal energy turbine designed and deployed by MCT. It is the largest grid-connected marine renewable energy system in the world and which last month exceeded 1000 hours of commercial operation in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. It is the first tidal current energy system in the world to have achieved this milestone.

The 1.2MW tidal current turbine, which was deployed in April 2008, has achieved a capacity factor of 66% and so far delivered more than 800MWh of electricity into the National Grid.   Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said: “The Pentland Firth and Orkney waters are strategically the most important marine energy areas in Western Europe so we are delighted to have secured approval for a lease by The Crown Estate. I believe that MCT is in a very strong position to capitalise on this significant and challenging opportunity. MCT already has the valuable experience of deploying and operating SeaGen in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough and within the next two to three years we expect to have deployed our first tidal farm in UK waters.”

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