OCEAN ENERGY OVERSIGHT: WAVE, CURRENT, 

 AND TIDAL POWER 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1980 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Oceanography, 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington, D.C. 



The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m., in room 

 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Gerry E. Studds 

 (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 



Present: Representative Studds. 



Mr. Studds. The subcommittee will come to order. 



Today's hearing is our fourth oversight hearing on renewable 

 sources of energy from the ocean. In our first three hearings, which 

 were held last year, we dealt with ocean thermal energy conserva- 

 tion (OTEC) — which uses temperature differences in ocean water to 

 produce electricity — and ocean biomass conversion, which uses the 

 ocean as a place to grow plants for conversion to methane gas. 

 Today we will focus on methods which would convert the energy in 

 the ocean's waves, currents, and tides into electricity. 



We understand that the Department of Energy has decided to 

 focus the bulk of its efforts and funding for ocean energy systems 

 on OTEC because its potential is far greater than any other ocean 

 energy system. 



Although the United States is the world leader in many areas of 

 scientific and technical endeavor, much of the work on the technol- 

 ogies we are considering today has been done in other countries. 

 Most of the early work on wave energy conversion was done in 

 Great Britain. 



The only existing tidal power project of any size is at Ranee on 

 the Brittany coast of France. The Soviet Union has a small pilot 

 tidal powerplant approximately 40 miles north of Murmansk. 



Given our dwindling energy supplies and our dependence upon 

 foreign sources of fuel, we as a nation cannot afford to investigate 

 alternative energy sources in as plodding and methodical a fashion 

 as we could 10 or 20 years ago. The major purpose of our hearings 

 today and those we have already held on ocean energy is not only 

 to investigate the feasibility and potential of these emerging tech- 

 nologies, but also to encourage DOE to hasten the development of 

 those which appear the most promising. 



Because this is the last ocean energy oversight hearing which we 

 will be able to hold during this Congress, we have grouped together 

 wave, current, and tidal power in a single hearing. 



We understand that our choice of technologies for this hearing 

 differs from the way DOE organizes its own activities. Many things 



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