The guest commentary, “Feds should pitch in on PUD-tidal project,” in the Oct. 23 Herald, raises questions about decisions made by elected Snohomish Public Utility District commissioners and senior PUD management who direct long term goals and strategy. The commentary leads one to believe that PUD ratepayers and federal taxpayers should continue signing blank checks to support exploring alternative renewable energy sources despite great expense.
Eight years ago, the PUD set out to be a world leader in renewable energy with a project designed to test the feasibility of tidal energy by using two 414-ton turbines that would provide power 100 homes on Whidbey Island. This would have been one of the few tidal projects in the world. The original cost estimate was $20 million. The project was scheduled to be in service only three to five years and then it would have been removed.
After eight years of effort, the revised estimate for this experiment is $38 million, and the PUD cautions the total might have been more. Because federal funding was capped, the PUD decided to no longer pursue the tidal project.
To serve those same 100 homes for much longer than three to five years, complete solar power systems would cost $2.5 million at a savings of $35.5 million. Installing solar would not require extensive permitting, a special barge, mitigations or environmental monitoring that the tidal project has required. The author of the commentary quotes the PUD management as saying that one reason for the increased cost was the federal permitting process. Those rigorous, and expensive, federal permitting requirements are not needed to install solar. Additionally, maintenance on solar power is much cheaper than tidal.
Snohomish PUD definitely should explore new energy sources and ideas. In this case, other cutting-edge systems that have been installed elsewhere could have been evaluated to determine whether tidal technology is feasible. One of those systems is a few miles north of us in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Race Rocks tidal power project was run for a short time starting in 2006 in a similar body of water and in the same weather and tide conditions as ours. Could the PUD have learned from the Race Rocks operation so that it did not try to re-invent the wheel?
It is cheaper, and more prudent, to observe other installations and assess their performance and results before hemorrhaging large sums of money, whether the money comes from federal Department of Energy grants or from PUD ratepayers.
Snohomish PUD needs to choose proven renewable energy strategies that are less risky and have a proven track record. Using the estimated tidal project cost so far of $38 million, 5,000 households in the service area would have been given solar power by expanding the PUD’s current solar program. For the same amount of money, and for only three to five years, the tidal project would have provided energy to only 100 homes. Which gives the biggest bang for the buck: Power for many years to 5,000 homes, or power for three to five years to 100 homes?
The sitting Snohomish PUD commissioners do not appear to be making justifiable choices about alternative power, preferring more expensive options over practical, less invasive and cheaper solutions.
Lora Cox is a Gold Bar resident and Snohomish PUD ratepayer.
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