Researchers hoping to generate electricity from ocean waves, including those at Oregon State University, will likely have 105 million additional federal dollars in 2019, thanks in part to Rep. Suzanne Bonamici.
The Oregon Democrat managed to get the $105 million into a new federal spending package passed by the Senate and the House this week. The 2019 appropriations bill now goes to President Donald Trump.
The additional funding will go to the U.S. Department of Energy's Water Power Technologies Office, which supports investments in hydropower, marine and hydro-kinetic energy technologies. From there, some of the money will go to the Pacific Marine Energy Center, a partnership of Oregon State, the University of Washington and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
Oregon State is currently overseeing an Energy Department-funded effort to design and construct a deep-water marine energy convertor off the coast from Newport. A marine energy convertor uses wave and tidal energy to generate electric power.
"This investment in wave energy technology innovation and testing is essential to realize the potential for marine energy to contribute to a resilient, diverse, and renewable energy future," said Dr. Roberta Marinelli, dean of the College of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State.
Bonamici has long advocated for increased study of marine power, which she contends is an under-utilized resource. In March, she led 44 of her colleagues in calling for more robust spending in a letter to the to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee.
About $70 million of the new money in the 2019 appropriations bill is aimed at marine hydropower, which OSU officials consider to be their principal area of expertise. That amounts to a 42 percent increase over 2017 spending.
New marine power technology could generate 50 gigawatts of additional energy by 2050, Bonamici wrote in a letter to the subcommittee.
"Harnessing energy from waves, currents, and tides is an exciting frontier in the renewable energy sector," she said.
—Jeff Manning