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Greetings from Washington! We hope this new year finds you well.
The SMI water power team continues to work on multiple fronts supporting the interests of the marine energy industry here in the nation's capital. 2016 was a watershed year in the development of new marine energy technologies and we have been pleased to help support these efforts. With the November elections behind us, we stand ready to work with the incoming 115th Congress and President-Elect Donald J. Trump to "Make Marine Energy Great!" There is, of course, uncertainty regarding the Trump Administration's support for new innovative energy technologies. We will be working with our clients to implement an aggressive marketing campaign to share the history of marine energy technology development and provide our recommendations for a path forward.
Since our last report in July, we continued to lobby Congress until the closing days of the session to reauthorize and provide increased funding support for the marine energy R&D activities at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). We have engaged DOE staff to ensure the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is focused on the industry's priorities. We also worked with our congressional champions to secure additional funding for important Department of Defense programs to test and develop marine energy systems. The report below provides additional details on these activities, along with recent news on marine energy projects from around the world.
Thanks for your continued interest in marine energy. We look forward to working with you during 2017, and best wishes for a wonderful and prosperous new year!
Damian Kunko, Paul Gay and PJ Dougherty
Key Points Related to Future Federal Support for Marine Energy
A few key points to keep in mind related to future federal support for marine energy include:
- President-Elect Trump has made only general policy statements on energy issues, mostly related to the fossil industry. Mr. Trump has promised to keep an open mind on matters related to human impact on climate change. In addition, Mr. Trump's selection of former Governor Rick Perry to be the Secretary of Energy is very interesting as Texas is a national leader with regard to wind power deployment and production. Also, the nomination of General James N. Mattis, former Commander of U.S. Central Command, to lead the Department of Defense should bode well for continuing most of the Pentagon's clean energy R&D and procurement activities. General Mattis was a senior Marine Corps leader who saw the value of renewable energy systems to benefit the warfighters' tactical missions.
- We expect efforts to implement significant regulatory changes that might help allow technology developers and test centers to permit offshore systems faster and with less expense.
- Fortunately, the industry's most important Congressional champions have returned to Washington to serve in the 115th Congress which opened its two year term on January 3, 2017. We fully expect and will work to ensure the marine energy industry continues its record of success when it comes to securing increasing support for the DOE WPTO and the Navy Energy Program.
- Over sixty percent of Fortune 500 companies have climate action plans and are actively working to acquire renewable energy solutions. These companies and related trade groups are organizing to defend the transition to a cleaner mix of the electricity generation and keep the U.S. in the Paris Climate treaty accords.
- Many significant coastal/island states and territories will continue to provide leadership in transitioning to a low carbon future through RPS requirements and support for advanced clean energy technologies.
What you can do to help:
- You voice needs to be heard! If you are an advocate of marine energy and want to see the U.S. continue to support technology development that leads to commercialization, we need you to be part of the National Hydropower Association's Marine Energy Council.
- Communicate what you are doing to advance the marine energy industry to elected officials, the DOE and the Navy. Do you have an interesting project or innovative technology and are making significant successful advances that will lead to a commercial product or demonstration? Let the MEC know and send the results of your success to your Congressional delegation and relevant federal officials. If you don't know who they are or how to best communicate to them, please contact the SMI team.
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Congressional Action on Fiscal Year 2017 Marine Energy Funding
Appropriations - DOE Water Power Program/Department of Defense/Navy
SMI continued to lobby the House and Senate Appropriations Committees through the summer and fall to secure favorable program direction and increased investment by the DOE for marine energy technology development and testing. Unfortunately, Congress concluded the second session of the 114th Congress without completing action on the Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bills. Instead, Congress approved a short term Continuing Resolution at Fiscal Year 2016 enacted funding levels until April 28, 2017. Please see our last
newsletter that describes the House and Senate action on Fiscal Year 2017 funding for the WTPO. SMI will work closely with industry and our Congressional supporters to secure the most favorable language and funding levels possible during consideration of the Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018 appropriation bills. We expect President-Elect Trump to release his first budget request to Congress sometime in April 2017.
Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act
The Fiscal Year 2017 Defense authorization legislation was signed into law on December 24, 2016 and included the following provision requested in the U.S. House of Representatives by our Congressional champions. The language directs the Navy to support marine energy development and work with the DOE-designated national marine renewable energy centers. Special thanks to House Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) for including and supporting this language.
"Marine and Hydrokinetic Technology.- The committee commends the U.S. Navy's exploration of ocean renewable energy, including marine and hydrokinetic energy systems, and notes the value of investing in alternative energy research with potential operational and fiscal benefits. The Navy is encouraged to continue its support for development of marine and hydrokinetic technologies, including research, testing, and demonstration of maritime security systems, at-sea persistent surveillance and communications systems, and exploring opportunities to reduce the cost of energy and increase tactical energy security at coastal Department of Defense facilities and forward deployed assets. Further, the Navy is encouraged to support research, testing, and demonstration activities of marine and hydrokinetic energy systems at existing U.S. open ocean test facilities and Department of Energy designated National Marine Renewable Energy Centers, which are capable of scale and full-scale device testing."
Energy Policy Modernization Act - No Go in 2016
The U.S. Senate passed
S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act
, early in the 114th Congress. The legislation included language we have worked on for over seven years to reauthorize DOE's marine energy program and included a significant increase in funding for R&D over the next four years.
The
House passed its version, H.R.8,
during December 2015.
The Senate and House have been working to reconcile their respective bills in conference but were unable to complete action before conclusion of the 114th Congress. We will work to ensure our pending marine energy provisions will be re-introduced in this new Congress. We will be reviewing our draft legislation to determine if any changes are necessary to ease passage in the future.
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SMI Federal Agencies Activity
The SMI water power team continues to build on its long-standing relationships with U.S. federal agency staff to raise the visibility and benefits of marine energy technologies. SMI has been successful in shaping funding opportunities, securing technical support from the national laboratories, arranging cooperative testing and demonstration, and engaging high-level program officials to discuss future investment opportunities. We have recently updated the master list of all federal contacts involved in marine energy and can provide a copy upon request.
U.S. Department of Energy
Transitions within DOE and EERE Leadership - The new administration has announced the decision to nominate former Governor Rick Perry to head DOE. We expect other DOE leadership announcements in the coming weeks. We will work to inform the new DOE Secretary and his team of the industry's priorities.
New Water Power Technologies Office Established - As previously reported, the DOE earlier this year established a stand-alone WPTO as directed by the Fiscal Year 2016 energy and water appropriations bill. Jim Ahlgrimm has been acting as interim director while a search is conducted for a permanent senior executive service level director. The WPTO has improved its facilities and moved up the street from the Forrestal building. The new address is 1250 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington DC 20024.
DOE WPTO Funding Opportunity Posted - On December 16, 2016, the DOE WPTO announced Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The new DOE investments will support the research, testing, and development of innovative technologies capable of generating renewable, environmentally responsible and cost-effective electricity from U.S. water resources, including marine energy technologies.
Concept papers are due January 17. The WPTO will focus on the technologies that can be deployed in markets with high energy costs in the near-term, while supporting next generation technologies that have the potential to be cost competitive with other energy generation technologies in the longer term, and this FOA targets technologies in both categories. This FOA solicits applications that propose projects supporting marine energy research and development in two topic areas:
Topic Area 1: "Wave Energy Converters System Advancement" seeks to design and build high energy capture wave energy converters and conduct scaled fully operational system testing in open water. Topic Area 2: "Open Topic - MHK Technology Development" seeks to develop innovative technologies that have the potential to significantly advance marine energy technologies and the state of the industry. The FOA can be viewed at:
https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/#FoaId1eb6d62a-918a-4ce7-ac21-f7308ba5c545.
Request for Information (RFI) on Draft Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) Program Strategy Issued - On December 21, the WPTO released its draft program strategy to seek input from stakeholders. The strategy was developed to guide the office's efforts in addressing barriers to the further development, testing, commercialization and deployment of promising marine energy technologies and reflects preliminary comments received during a public meeting on April 27, 2016, and through an earlier RFI. Industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders are encouraged to provide ideas for improvement so the strategy can be most impactful for the nation. The RFI and draft strategy can be viewed here:
https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/#FoaIdec253663-c0d2-4a05-942f-50c8975fcf58.
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Marine Energy Council Meeting - Members of the Marine Energy Council and other industry stakeholders are continuing to shape a proposed program for consideration by ARPA-E. The effort is building off a meeting with key ARPA-E officials early in 2016 and ongoing discussions regarding industry-wide "pinch points" that, if solved, would significantly accelerate commercialization of marine energy generation devices. The MEC working group is aiming to have an industry vetted white paper formally submitted to ARPA-E in the coming weeks.
DOE Structured Innovation Initiative - Members of the MEC continue to engage the WPTO and its national laboratories on the Structured Innovation Initiative, which aims to develop a proposed process to identify and agree on a measurable set of suitable metrics with minimum numerical thresholds, which can support a list of wave energy converter system requirements. This proposed effort has been the focus of several engagements to date with the DOE WPTO, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Specifically, DOE has asked for industry feedback on Technology Performance Level Assessment and Wave Farm Functional Requirements activities and the MEC is working to ensure the materials developed to date on these activities are distributed to the appropriate industry members for comment. In the longer term, the MEC will contact individual members and segment our communications by function/need/interest to better provide DOE with feedback on these proposed investments.
Wave Energy Prize Update - On November 19, 2016, the DOE EERE announced AquaHarmonics as the winner of the Wave Energy Prize - which comes with a $1.5 million grand prize. CalWave Power Technologies and Waveswing America were awarded second and third place, respectively, with $500,000 and $250,000 in cash prizes. An 18-month design-build-test competition, the Wave Energy Prize focused on catalyzing the development of game-changing wave energy converters that could reduce the cost of wave energy. Ninety-two teams registered for the prize beginning in April 2015. Over the course of the competition, a panel of judges ultimately identified nine finalists and two alternates, which were announced in March. These teams received up to $125,000 in seed funding to build scaled prototypes of their wave energy converter devices. With the support of the U.S. Navy, the finalist teams tested their prototype devices at the nation's most advanced wave-making facility, the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Maneuvering and Seakeeping Basin at Carderock, Maryland.
The SMI water power team has also continued to engage numerous DOD elements with R&D and testing focus areas of interest to the marine energy industry. These include
Office of Naval Research, NAVFAC/Energy Program, Assistant Sectary of the Navy for Energy and Installations, and others. Our goal is to secure support for the Wave Energy Test Site in Hawaii, suggest future funding areas, and push for new applications of marine energy to provide power for autonomous communications, early detection capabilities, Arctic operations, and other DOD remote power needs.
Additionally, SMI is continuing to engage Navy program managers regarding the
Forward Deployed Energy and Communications Outposts (FDECO)
to shape the possible inclusion of marine energy system research to meet the Navy's need for self-sufficient forward operating and monitoring equipment and vehicles. The FDECO program is conducting demonstrations in 2017 of a shore powered communications and AUV docking system and will plan for future R&D to integrate an at-sea power solution for remote systems.
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Upcoming Events
February 14-16, 2017
Arlington, VA USA
Principal Investigators from the Energy Department's National Laboratories, academic and industry representatives will present the progress of approximately 70 DOE-funded research projects. The peer review will feature two tracks, hydropower and marine hydrokinetic technologies, to allow for a formal, rigorous evaluation process and findings of independent reviewers who examine the technical, scientific, and business results of WPTO funded projects, as well as the productivity and management effectiveness of the WPTO itself. More information is forthcoming for participants and interested stakeholders.
May 1-3, 2017
Washington, DC USA
Waterpower Week in Washington provides three great conferences in one! The International Marine Renewable Energy Conference, the Marine Energy Technology Symposium and the National Hydropower Association's Annual Conference have teamed up to provide a 3-day jam packed event to network and discuss water power related policy changes and government affairs. Keep up with all the news in the hydro and marine industry in this all-in-one event. The event highlights perspectives on the role of hydro, explores issues affecting hydro and marine resources, and helps participants develop a future game plan to meet challenges and ensure the future sustainability of the hydro and marine industry.
June 27-30, 2017
Denver, Colorado USA
As the largest gathering of hydro professionals worldwide, join 3000+ attendees and 320+ exhibiting companies from around the world for a week of informative hydropower-focused meetings, workshops, tours, an extensive program and exhibition. HydroVision International highlights perspectives on the role of hydropower, explores issues affecting hydro resources, and helps participants develop a vision to meet challenges and ensure the future sustainability of hydro.
The SMI water power team is supporting the marine energy track planning committee. Stay tuned for new details soon.
August 27-September 2, 2017
Cork, Ireland
European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC) series are international technical and scientific conferences, focused on ocean renewable energy and widely respected for their commitment to maintain high standards of academic and industrial contributions.
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International and U.S. Industry Update
The second half of 2016 can be viewed as a milestone in marine energy production and testing. Here are links to interesting success stories and news from around the globe:
USA
International
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Other Related News
What Are the EU Plans for Ocean Energy?
The European Union (EU) is hoping to meet its own ambitious targets by investing heavily in ocean energy, among other forms of renewable energy production. The EU recently announced it would be investing €320 million in ocean energy development programs in the hopes that this underexplored method of energy generation can provide as much as ten percent of the bloc's total needs by 2050.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures - Bill Gates, along with an incredible group of people who care a lot about energy innovation, announced the launch of Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), a fund that will invest more than $1 billion in scientific breakthroughs that have the potential to deliver cheap and reliable clean energy to the world.
It's the next step in an effort that began last December, when private investors from around the globe who were passionate about solving this problem were brought together. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and institutional investors committed to help bring promising new zero-emissions energy technologies to market was formed. The Coalition partnered with Mission Innovation, an initiative of more than 20 countries and the European Union to double their investment in clean energy research and development in the next five years.
Team SMI in Action at the Oregon Wave Energy Trust Conference
- Members of SMI's water power team deployed to Portland, Oregon, September 20-22 to support several engagements with the U.S. marine energy community as well as the WPTO. Over the course of the three days SMI engaged conference and meeting attendees from industry, federal officials, regional and state level advocates and stakeholders, regulators, local legislators, and national lab staff to shape the future of the marine energy industry on the West Coast.
Highlights included participation in a roundtable on the future of the DOE marine energy program and investment and activities to develop a strategic plan and secure meaningful input from industry going forward; delivery of a "Washington Update" focused on federal agency and congressional support for marine energy in the U.S.; and direct discussions with former, existing, and potential clients.
Also, SMI's own Damian Kunko was given the prestigious "Ocean Energy Leadership Award" for his tireless efforts to build and promote the marine energy industry in the U.S. over the course of his career.
SMI's Damian Kunko speaks at the Canadian Marine Renewables Conference on behalf of the NHA-MEC on U.S. opportunities and future plans. There was significant federal and provincial leadership at the event and the main focus was on the Bay of Fundy tidal energy projects. It was apparent that the transition from the Harper administration to Prime Minster Justin Trudeau has had a stimulative effect on RE projects. Representatives from Andritz, Open Hydro/DCNS, Atlantis Resources, Schottel/Blackrock, as well as project developer DP Energy gave excellent presentations on the status of their projects and consent/technology development and mobilization process. Particularly interesting was the significant support from the provincial/local government with the feed-in tariff and vocal support from the World Wildlife Fund.
There were 15 exhibitors and the U.S. delegation consisted of OWET's Jason Busch and a representative from both NREL and PNNL. Other companies with interesting projects include Tidal Lagoon Power, Big Moon Power, Water Wall Turbine, Tocardo, and Mavi Innovations. It's clear that when tidal energy takes off in Canada, the U.S. may be importing gigawatts from Nova Scotia in the next 5-10 years.
Deborah Montagna Retires
Special thanks for industry leader Debbie Montagna from Ocean Power Technologies who recently announced her retirement. Debbie was a tireless advocate for wave energy and her efforts helped lead to the creation of the U.S. Navy Wave Energy Test facility in Hawaii. Debbie, thank you for all your hard work and best wishes for your future endeavors!
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2016 - Year in Photos
Below are some of the best project photos from 2016 which gives us optimism for the future of the marine energy industry!
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About - SMI Value Proposition
SMI, Inc.
is a full-service government relations firm that provides clients with consulting services focused on strategic marketing and capturing federal funding. SMI is dedicated to helping clients develop and demonstrate clean energy technologies through government program and industry marketing support. Our experienced team works with the Federal Government to secure funding and shape policy as well as promoting legislation that encourages clean energy development and deployment.
We periodically send emails highlighting developments, updates, and other newsworthy mentions concerning the marine energy industry. We do this because you are a valued client, or you have expressed an interest in keeping abreast of developments in the rapidly growing marine energy industry. However, if you do not like to receive such updates, please feel free to unsubscribe at the bottom of this message and you will be removed from the list.
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