An Analysis of the Leading Tidal Energy Projects in the United States since 2000.

Abstract

Using both document review and interview data approach this study explores two of the leading pilot tidal energy projects completed in the United States: the Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy pilot project in Eastport, Maine and the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy pilot project in the East River off of Manhattan, New York. The research draws upon project documentation and licensing to gain insight of these projects’ progression through development stages. This study also utilizes in-depth, elite, semi-structured interviews of key pilot project developers, researchers, and permitting agency representatives to understand their experiences with tidal energy development. The study analyzes data from eleven interviews utilizing Atlas.ti software to identify major interview themes. The interviewees shared their views of the role of five major factors identified through literature review as having an impact on renewable energy project progression. These include: social acceptance, economic, political, legal, and ecological factors. Respondents shared how these factors appeared or were relevant to their experiences with the permitting or design stages, as well as how research and experimentation was developed. The themes that emerged from the review of project documentation and interviews were siting and design/deployment strategies, community engagement and social acceptance, U.S. economic and social structures, and permitting and the research cycle. The interviews also included respondents’ assessments of the pilot projects’ progression, their identification of steps that were conducive to the development and elements that they would recommend changing. Lastly, the interviewees were able to share their opinions on what the future of tidal development in the U.S. might look like. These results provide lessons for future tidal energy development in the U.S. Interviewees point to future commercial scale tidal energy as either hybrid renewable portfolio solutions or as small-scale, community-based systems. Regardless of how commercial tidal energy will be developed in the U.S. economic, political, and legal challenges might continue along with the necessity for community engagement and ecological research. Understanding how these early U.S. tidal energy projects were developed is the key to possible future commercial scale tidal energy.