A Portland-based tidal-power company has won federal grants totaling more than $1.3 million to boost development of the fledgling technology. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree today announced that Ocean Renewable Power Company has been awarded two Department of Energy grants.
ORPC will use the first one -- for $750,000 -- to develop a standard mooring system for the company's tidal generators. The system will be tested and deployed in the waters off Eastport, where ORPC is developing a demonstration tidal power project in conjunction with the Coast Guard.
The second grant of $600,000 will be spent studying the effects of tidal generators on marine mammals, particularly whales. That technology will be tested in Cook Inlet, Alaska, where ORPC is also operating.
The grant came with a plug for the effort from U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu. "Hydropower is our largest source of renewable energy and it can play an even bigger role in the future," Chu says in a statement. "These investments will create jobs, cut carbon pollution and help put us on a path to a clean energy economy."