PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Economic Development Council has taken the first step toward making the North Olympic Peninsula a hub for the renewable-energy industry.
EDC Executive Director Linda Rotmark said the organization will use a $25,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce and a $17,000 contribution from local public entities to assess the region’s potential for hosting more green energy projects and the companies that make them happen. Commerce awarded the grant Monday.
Rotmark said the expanding industry “has the potential for being a gold rush” for the Peninsula, primarily because of its long coastlines, deepwater port in Port Angeles and the presence of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Sequim Marine Research Operations.
The study — which will encompass Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap and Grays Harbor counties — is due by June 30.
It will be followed by another study, possibly done by the end of the year, aimed at giving the four counties a “road map” for developing renewable-energy projects and industries, Rotmark said.
She added that the second phase will involve more assistance from the other counties’ economic development councils.
Developing a renewable-energy industry was a goal of last year’s Clallam County Economic Development Summit.
Primarily, the studies will look at off-shore wind along with wave and tidal energy projects, but biomass and other energy sources will also be included, Rotmark said.
But to make wind farms happen, the Peninsula is going to need to attract the companies that manufacture the technology, she said.
“The equipment is so big, we are going to have to build it here,” Rotmark said.
The Peninsula also could be a base, she said, for the manufacturing of wind-farm equipment for the West Coast.
Charlie Brandt, director of the marine research lab in Sequim, agreed.
“One of the great things about this industry . . . is the scale of the devices that are going to go into the water aren’t the kind of things you can ship by truck or rail,” he said.
“We have ports, Port Angeles being one . . . that can contribute to the industry.”
In terms of environmental impacts, Brandt said, off-shore wind farms — which would have to sit on floating platforms due to the depth of the ocean — shouldn’t be a problem since they are out of the way of migration corridors for birds.
They also would sit beyond the horizon, he said.
Wave and tidal energy projects aren’t as simple.
Their effects on sea life, mainly through their electromagnetic field, is still being researched.
The Sequim lab is currently studying the potential effects of the Snohomish Public Utility District’s tidal energy project slated to begin operating in Admiralty Inlet in 2012.
Brandt said the lab began the research about a year ago but hasn’t drawn any conclusions.
As a precaution, the lab also is developing technology that would shut the turbine off when a whale is near, he said.
Brandt said the lab will assist the EDC with determining the environmental impacts of the technology.
The study has other supporters: Clallam County, the Port of Port Angeles, the Clallam County Public Utility District, the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and the cities of Sequim and Port Angeles each contributed match money for the grant.
Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers called renewable energy one of the “economic priorities” for the City Council.
“They feel like this area of the state has a lot of opportunity to grow that industry here,” he said.
“We feel like this area is ripe for taking advantage of these opportunities,” Myers added.
Supporting the development of a renewable-energy industry in Port Angeles — whether biomass, wind, tidal, solar, etc. — is part of the port’s strategic plan, adopted in 2009, said port Executive Director Jeff Robb.
Robb said the study will help the port determine what it needs to do to attract that growth.
“Until we start to better understand what the needs would be, we can’t quantify how we would prepare for it,” he said.
While offshore wind projects have been established in Europe and one planned for the coast off Massachusetts, Brandt said he doesn’t think the Peninsula is coming late to the game.
He said that’s because the industry hasn’t been established on the West Coast to develop and support such projects.
“It’s a model in some sense for what we can do, but it’s not a competition,” Brandt said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.s
