In a statement, the company expressed its hope of returning to the Pacific Northwest someday, but said it will focus on California in the meantime.
Aquamarine Power's energy generator relies on a large mechanical flap placed just below the surf. A more traditional ocean energy design uses an array of bobbing buoys. There are also new prototypes that employ pressure-sensitive airbags on the sea floor.
Groups representing the fishing fleet remain leery of such technologies and the ocean-planning process.
Ilwaco, Washington crab fisherman Dale Beasley has a hard time imagining sharing the sea with industrial energy installations. "Ocean energy and fishing are mutually exclusive. They will not be able to coexist in the same area."
Not everyone agrees with that perspective. A representative of environmental groups is more conciliatory.
"I do think there is a way through this," says Susan Allen, who directs a coalition called Our Ocean. "It has to do with the fact that Oregon is uniquely suited to deal with this. We have a long legacy of figuring out what compromises are. We are the state that pioneered...land use planning."
The ocean mapping and zoning process won't stop the West Coast's first commercial wave-energy park. Ocean Power Technologies' demonstration project near Reedsport, Oregon, has already been approved.
The company plans to launch the first of 10 massive floating wave energy generators there around the middle of this year.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25