What are mhk technologies?



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Budget

MHK tech is weak now- this is predictive of the 2015 budget and more recent


Ocean Leadership 6/16

The Consortium for Ocean Leadership is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that represents more than 100 of the leading public and private ocean research and education institutions, aquaria and industry with the mission to advance research, education and sound ocean policy, “CONGRESSIONAL NEWS Week of June 16, 2014”, Jun. 16, 14 http://oceanleadership.org/ocean-policy-legislation/policy-news-and-upcoming-events/ Accessed 6/22



This week, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees advanced their respective FY15 spending measures for the Department of Energy (DOE) and Army Corps of Engineers. The House version provides level funding for science programs at the Department of Energy, but only $38.5 million for water power, which is $20 million below current year funding and $24 million below the budget request. The funding would be split equally between marine/hydrokinetic technologies and conventional hydropower. The bill also prohibits any changes to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. “This legislation has very clear priorities – reinforcing our national defense through nuclear security, boosting our economy by facilitating important infrastructure projects, investing in American energy, and holding the line on federal spending,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) said. The bill was adopted by the full committee and could reach the House floor as early as next week. More information on the House bill can be found here. The Senate bill provides a $20 million increase for the DOE Office of Science. The Senate Appropriations Committee was scheduled to meet Thursday to mark up the bill, but that meeting has been delayed in an apparent attempt to avoid uncomfortable votes on several GOP amendments regarding President Obama’s carbon emissions regulations and Clean Water Act jurisdiction. More information on the Subcommittee markup can be found here.

4 million funding announced for MHK – not enough


Energy.gov 14

“Funding Opportunity Announcement for a Marine and Hydrokinetic Development University Consortium”, Energy, Apr. 10, 14 http://energy.gov/eere/water/articles/funding-opportunity-announcement-marine-and-hydrokinetic-development-university, Accessed 6/22



On April 10, 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $4 million funding opportunity titled “Marine and Hydrokinetic Development University Consortium.” This funding opportunity is supporting the advancement of wave and tidal energy technologies while developing a globally competitive MHK workforce. This funding will support one consortium of universities over three years in multiple field-focused R&D activities to address strategic opportunities in DOE’s MHK technology development portfolio such as: • Logistics development for operations and maintenance of devices and arrays in energetic marine environments. • Development and validation of efficient high-fidelity resource characterization and/or modeling techniques. • Development and techno-economic studies of devices for distributed applications. • Component technology development necessary for enabling arrays: e.g. moorings and foundations, transmission, and other offshore grid components. • Array performance testing and evaluation. • In-water testing and evaluation of new, cost-effective environmental monitoring techniques and instrumentation in energetic marine environments.

Not widely deployed now

MHK technologies are not widely deployed now but have huge potential for energy production


Todd J. Griset, ‘11, Attorney with Preti Flaherty’s Energy and Telecommunications Group, “Harnessing the Ocean's Power: Opportunities in Renewable Ocean Energy Resources,” Ocean and Coastal Law Journal, 395, pp. 151-190.

While offshore wind projects capture energy from winds located over the ocean’s waters, marine hydrokinetic technologies capture energy from moving water itself. United States offshore hydrokinetic energy resources have the potential to provide a significant amount of power. These resources include the harnessable power of ocean currents, tides, and waves. Tidal and marine current power projects use the mechanical energy of moving water to generate electricity. Because water is approximately 835 times denser than air, a given flow of water contains a great deal more energy than the same volume of air flowing at the same speed. Humans have long recognized the power of tides to perform useful work; as early as AD 1066, tidal energy was used mechanically to power grist mills in England. This technology crossed the Atlantic shortly after European colonists; by 1640, Captain William Traske had developed a “tyde mill” near the mouth of the North River in Salem, Massachusetts to grind corn. These historical tidal projects generally incorporated moving gates that allowed water to flow in during high tides; after the tide dropped, the impounded water was allowed to flow out through a water wheel or similar device to convert the power to usable mechanical energy. Similar to conventional hydroelectric dams, modern barrage-based tidal projects rely on an improved version of the ancient tide mill technology, impounding water at high tide behind a barrage or dam and allowing it to flow through turbines to generate electricity. For example, the Rance Tidal Power Plant was constructed in France in 1966 and has a generating capacity of 240 megawatts. In North America, the Annapolis Royal Generating Station—built by then-Crown corporation Nova Scotia Power Corporation in the Bay of Fundy in the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1984—has 20 megawatts of installed capacity. Despite the proven success of such technologies, barrage-based tidal projects have not been widely developed, partly because barrages affect other uses of coastal areas such as navigation, fisheries, and habitat for wildlife.


The budget for MHK technologies was cut by 60% in the FY2014 budget


(OREC) ’13 Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition, June 27, 2013, “Press Release: House of Representatives Cuts DOE Water Power Program Funding,” http://www.oceanrenewable.com/2013/06/27/house-representatives-cuts-doe-water-power-program-funding/, Accessed 5/3/2014

The Congressional House of Representatives Appropriations Committee released their Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Energy and Water Development budget proposal yesterday and cut $911 million for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Programs.  The Water Power R&D program received $24 million, a 60 percent reduction from the funding level set by Congress in FY13.  This EERE program is charged with supporting efforts to research, test and develop innovative technologies capable of generating clean and affordable electricity from water resources. “This is disappointing news for the U.S. water power industry and the country as a whole,” said Sean O’Neill, OREC’s president. “Marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies, including wave, current and tidal, have demonstrated substantial progress and offer the promise to deliver clean, affordable and American made energy, jobs and economic development.”


Innovation now, but funding is key


US DOE 13 (United States Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 2 Dec 2013. Request for Information (DE-FOA-0001048) regarding a proposed Funding Opportunity Announcement: Administration of the Wave Energy Converter Prize p. 2-3. Accessed 23-6-14)GH

The wave energy industry is young and experiencing many new innovations as evidenced by a sustained growth in patent activity, with the numbers of patent application files doubling each year since 2008. While the private industry can develop these early conception wave energy converter (WEC) devices through design and benchtop prototype testing, funding is hard to secure for performance testing and evaluation of WEC devices in wave tanks at a meaningful scale. This is a problem for the industry since scaled WEC prototype tank testing, validation, and evaluation is a key step in the advancement of WEC technologies through higher technical readiness levels to reach commercialization.




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