U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England (SNNE) crews will partner with Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) members to demonstrate the nation's most robust tidal energy program on, Aug. 24, 2010.
Gov. John Baldacci, Congressman Mike Michaud and Capt. James McPherson, SNNE’s commander, will unite at Coast Guard Station Eastport to celebrate the first-ever successful implementation of tidal energy at a federal facility.
Massive tidal ranges in the ocean waters surrounding Eastport represent some of the largest in the country, rising and falling over 20 feet. The Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center (RDC), located in New London, Conn., and SNNE collaborated with Ocean Renewable Power Company to commission the first ever use of a tidal energy generator.
The 60 kW tidal turbine was launched in March for testing and is the largest ocean tidal energy generator in the United States. The turbine generator unit (TGU) is set in a steel-composite frame and is deployed from one of ORPC’s research vessels, the Energy Tide 2, in Cobscook Bay. The unit utilizes advanced design cross-flow turbines to drive the generator and the electricity produced will charge a set of battery modules housed in the Energy Tide 2.
The generator was recently re-deployed following several upgrades and began providing clean, grid-compatible electricity to Coast Guard Station Eastport’s 41-foot Utility Boat on Aug. 18, 2010. The TGU will also be involved in a concurrent project to test an active acoustic monitoring system that identifies marine life and debris in the vicinity of the turbine.
“The tidal generator is a pioneering concept in the field of renewable energy,” said McPherson. “The fact that this prototype is successfully producing power gives us the sense that this project has unlimited potential for not only Coast Guard facilities, but for the United States.”
From "Cruise Industry News"
The photograph coined the Blue Marble was taken on 7 December 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17 on their way to the Moon on what turned out to be the last manned lunar mission. The iconic image was seen by many as a depiction of Earth's frailty and vulnerability. No humans since that mission have cruised that far out in space. For those of us earthbound denizens destined never set eye on it from above, we'll just have to see it up close, by exploring the Blue Marble.
The Blue Marble
Exploring the Blue Marble Mission
The cruise industry and it's partner cruise lines are tied indelibly to "things" environmental. It is where they make their living. Be it the seas they sail, the ports they visit or the passengers and crew they carry. This blog will be a brew of cruise business information, how our industry manages it's environmental obligations, information about the ports that are visited all sprinkled with bits of information from the "sciences". And yes, on occassion an opinion or two on various topics. I hope it will be informative, once in a while provocative and always entertaining. So please join me while we explore the Blue Marble.
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