INNOVATION May-June 2018

B ritish Columbia is already a leader in renewable energy, generating more than 95 percent of the province’s electricity from a range of renewable sources including—in addition to hydro— biomass, wind, and solar power. That’s good, of course, but it has meant both that investigation into the abundant ocean resource right at our doorstep has been slower than it might otherwise have been, and might not reach the scale some had envisioned. At the same time, though, great strides in a new direction are now being made. “There are countries that have built utility-scale marine energy projects, including the UK, Australia, Portugal, and the US at a test site in Oahu, ” says Dr. Brad Buckham, P.Eng., Associate Professor in the University of Victoria’s Mechanical Engineering Department and co-leader of the new Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery based at UVic. “But that’s not a priority on the Canadian West Coast, especially now with Site C going ahead. The reality is also that marine energy is significantly more expensive to produce”—as high as a staggering 60 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to BC Hydro’s approximately 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. That does not mean, however, that marine energy—energy created by waves or tides—is dead here. On the contrary, it is very much alive in both the academic and commercial sectors, but the focus has changed. Back in 1995, BC Hydro invited independent power producers to submit bids for a range of renewable energy projects—including wind, solar, tide and wave—when the government of the time decided to explore alternatives to dams to meet rising electricity demand. As Charlie Smith of The Georgia Straight reported in February 1995, the tidal energy crowd was delighted:

UVic's Dr. Brad Buckham, P.Eng., with the AXYS Technologies Inc. WatchMate™ Buoy P hoto : G reg M iller , U vic P hoto S ervices