Funding and Recognition for MREC

03/07/2009

The New England Marine Renewable Energy Center (MREC) announced the award of USD950,000 from the US Department of Energy last week. Funding will go to a consortium of researchers from area institutions who are working with MREC, which is located at UMass Dartmouth's Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center (ATMC). The research will focus on developing technologies to obtain clean energy from offshore wind, waves and tides. Those institutions include: UMass, MIT, WHOI, UNH, and URI.

John Miller

MREC Director, John Miller, noted that while New England suffers from energy shortages and high prices, there is tremendous energy available in the ocean at the doorstep. MREC is here to open that door bringing electricity and jobs to the region.

The MREC consortium is currently funded by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and the University of Massachusetts. These additional funds will go a long way to establishing MREC as a center to support the local emergence of this new clean energy industry.

The Center is working now with the towns of Edgartown and Nantucket to test and develop a tidal energy project in Muskeget Channel, a spot with a furious confluence of currents between the islands of Muskeget and Martha's Vineyard. UMass scientists from the School for Marine Science and Technology are conducting the oceanographic surveys to locate the "sweet spots" where the currents run the fastest for the longest period of time during tidal cycles.

Earlier in June, MREC director, John Miller, was honored at the Energy Ocean Conference in Rockport (MN, USA). Miller received a Pioneer Award at the event for the work MREC does to develop technology, coordinate funding, publicize development efforts and work toward creating an open ocean test facility.

MREC is also developing a full and partial scale test site located off the coast of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. When operational the site will be pre-wired and permitted to enable energy developers to conduct trials of their systems in the harsh marine environment for a fraction of what it would cost to establish a similar capability by themselves.

The growing world wide demand for clean energy and the threat of climate change make it imperative that all forms of clean renewable energy be explored and developed. The Electric Power Research Institute, and industry research center, estimates that while peak usage in New England is about 28 Gigawatts, New England's adjacent waters could yield over 200 Gigawatts.