Renewable Energy Tide Is Rising

VT is in the wrong business. The Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center in Fall River just received nearly $1-million to study a tidal generation project in Muskeget channel along with other projects. The town of Edgartown has already been testing the water so to speak.

scientists are conducting the oceanographic surveys to locate what MREC calls “sweet spots,” where the currents run the fastest for the longest period of time.

What is exciting about the announcement is not the big bucks so much as the big potential. This site, it is believed, could provide nearly all of the power needed by the Vineyard. Creation of the tidal-energy project itself is still years off, said Maggie L. Merrill, MREC’s consortium coordinator. But the site, Muskeget Channel, has “a lot of potential,” she said. UMass Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology scientists are conducting the oceanographic surveys to locate what MREC calls “sweet spots,” where the currents run the fastest for the longest period of time. That from the Herald News.

According to HN the money will mostly go towards the channel project. The test site, once built, would also be able to accommodate other developers' projects. “While New England suffers from energy shortages and high prices, there is tremendous energy available in the ocean at our doorstep,” MREC Director John Miller said in the announcement. “MREC is here to open that door bringing electricity and jobs to our region.”

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