PG&E joins Golden Gate tidal power research

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric has expanded the funding of an existing research effort to determine possibilities for harnessing the tides in San Francisco Bay for power generation.

The utility has signed an agreement with the City and County of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Energy Company to fund and accelerate a study already underway.

The initial phases of the study are estimated to take approximately twelve months, and are to include analyses of the Bay’s energy potential, the existing and emerging technologies to capture energy from tidal flows, the possible environmental impacts associated with such a project, as well as the economic feasibility and other costs and benefits of tapping the tides' energy.

If findings are promising, future plans could ultimately lead to the development of a full-scale commercial project in three to five years.

The Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, last year identified the famous Golden Gate strait of San Francisco Bay as one of the most promising marine power locations in the world. According to EPRI researcher Roger Bedard (read an the Cleantech Group interview with Bedard), most of the Northern California watershed feeds into the Bay, and the strait is how it emerges to the ocean.

PG&E is committing to provide up to $1.5 million to fund research by third-party experts, dovetailing with up to $346,000 contributed by others. Golden Gate Energy currently holds key federal regulatory permits necessary to study the San Francisco Bay location.

In addition to being clean and renewable, tidal power offers the advantage of being predictable and reliable. In addition, tidal power turbines would be situated on the sea floor, avoiding the land-use and visual impact of other renewable forms of power generation like solar and wind.

In addition to exploring the potential of tidal power, PG&E is working to harness energy from the waves off the coasts of two Northern California counties (see PG&E initiating wave power research.)

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