The Maine Public Utilities also directed three utilities -- Central Maine Power, Bangor Hydro Electric Co. and Maine Public Service Co. -- to negotiate with Ocean Renewable Power Co. for electricity that will be put onto the grid by mid-October 2012.
Speaking with the Associated Press, Chris Sauer, president and CEO of Ocean Renewable Power hailed the inter-related moves -- amounting to the approval of PPAs with ORP's Maine Tidal Energy Project -- as a "landmark in the commercialization of tidal energy" in the US.
In a written statement, the company said The PPAs will greatly enhance ORPC’s ability to attract the additional investment needed to complete the project’s build-out over the next four years.
They also mean that the significant economic development benefits ORPC has already created in Washington County, Maine will expand dramatically going forward, the company said.
“Today is a major milestone in the 80-year effort to commercially harness the vast power of the tides. For longer than most of us have been alive, it has been a dream deferred. Now that dream will finally be realized,” said Maine Senate President Kevin Raye, who represents all of Washington County and eastern areas of Hancock and Penobscot Counties, and who was a Senate member of the Ocean Energy Task Force.
“We thank the citizens of Eastport and Lubec for helping ORPC succeed by consistently voicing their strong support and embracing tidal energy development in their communities,” said John Ferland, ORPC’s Vice President of Project Development.
The enabling legislation for the approved term sheet was established in April 2010, when the 124th Maine Legislature unanimously passed the Recommendations of the Governor’s Ocean Energy Task Force (Sec. 1-6, Public Law, Chapter 615, LD 1810). In so doing, tidal energy became a state priority.
Installation of the first phase of the Maine Tidal Energy Project began in March 2012 with the laying of the bottom support frame for the first grid-connected, commercial TidGen™ Power System at Ocean Renewable Power’s Cobscook Bay site near Seward Neck, Lubec.
The company expects to have the entire TidGen™ Power System installed by late summer, and to begin delivering electricity under the PPAs by October 1, 2012.
In fall 2013, ORPC plans to install four additional TidGen™ devices at this site, creating a five-device TidGen™ Power System with a design capacity of 900 kilowatts, enough to power over 100 homes.
In addition to Cobscook Bay, Ocean Renewable Power’s Maine Tidal Energy Project includes expansion into nearby Eastport- and Lubec-area tidal energy sites in Western Passage and Kendall Head, Maine. When completed, the project will generate up to 4 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity, enough to power over 1,000 homes.
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