On the eve of tomorrow's presidential election, I won't tell you to vote early and often, but that quote comes to mind nonetheless in thinking about the California Public Utilities Commission's recent denial of PG&E's application for approval of a 2 MW PPA (power purchase agreement) with Finavera. Essentially, the California Commission determined that wave energy remains too early stage to justify asking ratepayers to bear the high costs of the contract - 26 cents/kwh. And because wave energy is an early-stage technology, some may predict that we'll see decisions like that of the California Commission fairly often unless we change our priorities.
Though naturally, I'd have preferred that the California Commission approved the contract, at the same time, I can't fully fault the Commission for the outcome based on the information before it. PG&E is investigating wave energy options through its Wave Connect Project, for which it recently received a $1.2 million water power grant from DOE. And Finavera had published its plans to site wave energy projects in a variety of locations throughout the world. In light of these factors, the California Commission apparently believed that Finavera and PG&E could move ahead with wave energy development without ratepayer subsidization.
While some in the industry are bemoaning the California Commission decision, Dan Englander of Greenwire explained to the San Jose Mercury News that the denial isn't all that much of a setback: "PG&E picked the wrong company," he said. "Finavera isn't a bad company, it's just that their technology isn't at a stage where it's ready to deliver power commercially." In the long run, marine renewables industry stands a better chance of achieving success and public support when the technology is required to make some showing of viability before qualifying for preferential rates. At the end of the day, ratepayers don't mind paying a healthy premium for green power, so long as it works.
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