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BPA opens Pocketbook for Renewables by Staff BPA Journal, January 2007

BPA will spend up to $1 million in fiscal year 2007 to address how to generate electricity from the motion of the ocean and how to help tame the intermittent nature of wind power entering the region's electricity grid.

The agency is issuing a formal request for proposals (RFP) to the energy industry for advancement of technology that can help manage intermittent renewable power resources -- such as wind energy -- into the region's grid, as well as advance research on ocean wave and in-stream tidal generation technologies.

"The existing federal power system uses 31 dams and one nuclear power plant, along with some wind power, to generate emission-free, non-fossil-fuel based electricity for the Northwest," BPA Deputy Administrator Steve Hickok said. "Adding renewable wave energy to the mix, with no associated fossil fuel use or emissions, certainly would fit well with our federal power supply portfolio and could hold promise as our region's electricity needs continue to grow." It is possible additional funding may be available for subsequent years, he said.

The renewable integration portion of the RFP will help support recommendations expected in January from a wind integration study group made up of leaders from the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, utilities, renewable power developers and BPA. That group is expected to release a wind integration action plan setting out strategies to address the issues impacting the electricity grid.

To learn more about BPA's renewable energy technology roadmap and the renewable energy RFP, visit: www.bpa.gov/corporate/business/innovation.