Assessment of the National Ocean Service's Tidal Current Program

Assessment of the National Ocean Service's Tidal Current Program
Author: Karen L. Earwaker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1999
Genre: Aids to navigation
ISBN:

"The intent of this document is to set guidelines for future current surveys in order to update the U.S. reference stations in the Tidal Current Tables and to identify areas where real-time monitoring of currents may be appropriate. ... Potential locations for real-time current monitoring by Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems (PORTS) are identified. In addition to real-time current data, PORTS provides other critical navigational information such as water level, density, and meteorological data"--Executive summary, p. 1.

An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments

An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessments
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2013-04-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309270049

Increasing renewable energy development, both within the United States and abroad, has rekindled interest in the potential for marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) resources to contribute to electricity generation. These resources derive from ocean tides, waves, and currents; temperature gradients in the ocean; and free-flowing rivers and streams. One measure of the interest in the possible use of these resources for electricity generation is the increasing number of permits that have been filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). As of December 2012, FERC had issued 4 licenses and 84 preliminary permits, up from virtually zero a decade ago. However, most of these permits are for developments along the Mississippi River, and the actual benefit realized from all MHK resources is extremely small. The first U.S. commercial gridconnected project, a tidal project in Maine with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt (MW), is currently delivering a fraction of that power to the grid and is due to be fully installed in 2013. As part of its assessment of MHK resources, DOE asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide detailed evaluations. In response, the NRC formed the Committee on Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Technology Assessment. As directed in its statement of task (SOT), the committee first developed an interim report, released in June 2011, which focused on the wave and tidal resource assessments (Appendix B). The current report contains the committee's evaluation of all five of the DOE resource categories as well as the committee's comments on the overall MHK resource assessment process. This summary focuses on the committee's overarching findings and conclusions regarding a conceptual framework for developing the resource assessments, the aggregation of results into a single number, and the consistency across and coordination between the individual resource assessments. Critiques of the individual resource assessment, further discussion of the practical MHK resource base, and overarching conclusions and recommendations are explained in An Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy's Marine and Hydrokinetic Resource Assessment.

Program Plan FY93

Program Plan FY93
Author: United States. National Ocean Service. Strategic Environmental Assessments Division
Publisher:
Total Pages: 16
Release: 1992
Genre: Coastal ecology
ISBN: